The Thin Blue Line
by Ruirik
Summary: To protect and serve the citizens of Zootopia, an officer must be willing to give his or her all. But the weight of the badge is heavy, and the price all officers must pay will be steep. When a simple call goes wrong, all are reminded of the burden of standing on the thin blue line.
1. Prologue

Midday sun streamed through the windows of Zootopia Precinct One office of Chief Bogo. It gave the room a cheerful feeling, one that clashed rather starkly with Bogo's mood. He half-listened to the radio sat on the edge of his desk while thumbing through report after report.

"Arrived on scene," the radio crackled. Bogo recognized Officer McHorn's baritone voice and gruff tone with ease. "Looks like a ten-fifty. No visible injuries."

Bogo's ear twitched but he otherwise didn't look up from the report he was reading. Ten-fifties were traffic accidents. By the sound of things Bogo inferred that McHorn had found a fender bender at best, or a drunk driver at worst. Either way, no casualties meant less paperwork, which in his mind was a good day.

"Dispatch copies that, McHorn, do you need paramedics sent?" Clawhauser radioed back from the front desk.

"Stand-by, Dispatch."

Paper crumpled in Bogo's grip as he folded the report over to the second page, crimping the paper between his thumb and forefinger around the staple. He propped his left elbow on top of his desk and leaned into his open palm while he read. He found a strange comfort in the daily routine. Hearing the radio chatter of his officers on the streets of Zootopia, helping make the city a better place. Or some other platitude that whichever politician got in front of a camera this week thought up.

"Dispatch, negative on the meat wagons. No injuries, just damaged fenders and egos."

Bogo reached over to the radio without bothering to look. He picked up the hand unit and held it to his muzzle. "You're on an open channel, McHorn."

"Copy that. Sorry, Sir."

Bogo sighed and returned the radio to it's cradle. He loved his officers and was proud of each and every one of them. To be in Precinct One meant being the best that Zootopia had to offer. Even Clawhauser, despite what could generously be called poor physical fitness, fit that strict requirement. There wasn't a better dispatch officer in the city, nor a more amiable personality.

"Dispatch to Hopps, we have a possible ten-fifteen downtown." Clawhauser said

"Ten-four, Dispatch, what's our twenty?"

A pause of dead air filled his office while Clawhauser confirmed the address. Bogo peered over the rims of his glasses at the radio for a moment then went back to his report. Ten-fifteen meant a disturbance. Disturbance was a wild card that mean anything from a pack of rowdy children bothering the citizens around them, a heated argument between a feuding couple, or an armed robbery.

Usually it was just a customer mad at some hapless shopkeeper.

"Dispatch, Hopps, proceed to Silver Springs Plaza."

"Copy that, Dispatch. Our E.T.A. is three minutes."

Bogo made a thoughtful hum and took a moment to stretch out his neck. Silver Springs was a nice area of Downtown with a large fountain in the center of a pedestrian walkway that people liked to toss spare change in for luck. It was also a favorite place for gutter punks—the dissociative teenagers who rebelled by rejecting social norms like school, jobs, and daily showers. They often hung out around the fountain, begging for spare change, drinking out of conspicuous brown bags, or generally causing a fuss.

He had nothing against gutter punks or their spare changing ways. If anything, Bogo found their antics somewhat entertaining. Seeing who gave them change, who ignored them, and who tried to start problems with them was interesting. Plus they were the best practice for hi officers in dealing with unknown situations and histories.

To that end, Bogo had given Hopps and Wilde the area for most of their patrols. Hopps, while a fine officer, still had a lot to learn about the city, even after living there for almost a year. Wilde, on the other had, was a native son of the city. He claimed to know everybody, a claim that Bogo had little reason to doubt. And, at least as far as the gutter punks were concerned, Wilde had a way of milking them for reliable information.

Of course Bogo was well aware of Wilde's dalliances of petty cons. If he had any evidence of wrongdoing he'd throw the book at the mouthy fox. But Bogo had to admit, having a cop with Wilde's knowledge and connections was invaluable. There was a delicate push and pull to his efforts that the water buffalo had learned to respect. According to Officer Hopps, Wilde often let petty criminals pass: bootleggers, hustlers, the so-called 'harmless' crooks. In exchange they fed him information. Where the dealers were, where drop off points were for weapons, money, or other paraphernalia.

'Let the hustlers hustle,' the fox would say with that smartmouth grin splitting his muzzle from ear to ear. 'The little fish will happily play along if we give them space.'

"Dispatch, Wilde, subject spotted. Female, badger, cargo pants and a fetching hoodie that really compliments the grease stains. Yeah, she seems pretty worked up about something."

"Copy that, Wilde, do you require backup."

"I think she'll need a bit of detox. Looks like she's just had a bad batch of Nip or something. Gimme a sec."

"Got, be careful."

Groaning, Bogo pinched the bridge of his nose, thick fingers nudging his glasses further up his snout. Wilde's lackadaisical attitude towards protocol always rubbed off on other officers. Wolfard, Fragmire, and Delgato in particular had a bad habit of letting their professionalism slide with the fox. The prank wars between the four officers alone had been his personal Hell over the last twelve months.

"Standby," Hopps' voice crackled through the radio.

Bogo resisted the urge to grab his radio and demand a report. He had played the game too long to jump to action. It was also that experience that had made him trust his gut. And the sinking dread he felt slowly building was one that always put him on edge.

'Trust the officers on the scene.' He reminded himself. Bogo stared at his radio, and it stared back at him. The red, unblinking, unyielding light seemingly studying his every twitch and breath. Seconds ticked by turning steadily into minutes, and soon Bogo was letting out the breath he hadn't realized he was holding.

"Dispatch," Hoppe's voice popped over the radio once more after those terse several minutes. Bogo barely noticed how heavy the papers felt until the back of his hand touched his desk. "Subject is very agitated. Wilde's trying to talk—Miss! Miss, please step back!"

Static overtook the radio.

Bogo stood and quickly stepped out of his office. Turning left out of the door he walked at a brisk pace toward the stairs. He could see Clawhauser at the front desk, clutching the microphone in his paws like the world depended on it. The station bustled with activity, from officers booking new arrests to civilians filing criminal complaints and paying tickets. None of it mattered to the Chief, though, and as he slipped behind the reception desk he put a heavy hand on Clawhauser's shoulder.

"Updates?"

Clawhauser shook his head. "Not yet sir, I think–"

Static blared over the radio, cutting the conversation off. Worry dug its claws deeper into Bogo's gut while they waited for anything. Yet for seconds, then minutes, the radio gave nothing more than silence punctuated by loud static bursts.

"Chief?" Clawhauser whispered, his gaze cast up at Bogo. The water buffalo only made a terse nod, patting at Clawhauser's shoulder.

"Dispatch," Hopps' voice broke through the silence after several minutes. She paused for a cough, only to continue through gasped breaths. "S… up. Subject...ile, re—...stile."

"Negative Hopps, you broke up. Please say again, I repeat: Please say again."

"Dispatch, I say again," Hopps started, sounding more breathless than before. "—Ackup. Repeat, Subject is hostile. Send Backup!"

"Copy that," Clawhauser respond, then immediately switched to a different channel. "Fangmire, Grizzoli, backup requested at Silver Springs Plaza. Suspect is a female badger, hostile, proceed with caution."

"Dispatch, Fangmire, we copy that."

"Shots fired! Shots fired!" Hopps shouted over the radio.

Bogo heard the wheeze in her breath. She'd been hit. He grabbed the microphone from Clawhauser's paw before the cheetah could so much as blink. "Copy your double-zero, assistance en route." Bogo switched the radio quickly to all channels and took a breath. "All units, Station One. Shots fired and officers down at Silver Springs Plaza."

A chorus of affirmatives flooded the radio, but Bogo paid them no mind. "Clawhauser, I want information updates as you get them and EMTs on the scene before I get there."

"Yes sir!" The rotund dispatcher answered, already dialing the nearest hospital.

Bogo sprinted from the desk towards the garage. The keys for his personal cruiser feeling like lead in his pocket with every step. He barreled through the door to the parking garage, running for his car faster than he had in ages. The door to his cruiser opened with a groan as the bull all but threw himself into the drivers seat.

Only a moment later his sirens were blaring as he skidded out into traffic, two other squad cars tailing close behind.

Grabbing his dashboard radio, Bogo held the receiver to his lips and pressed the transmit button. "Hopps, Wilde, come in, what's your status?"

Only static answered his question.


	2. What Kind of Day Has It Been

"You know, one of these days you gotta let me drive," Nick Wilde said, his head casually looking over his left shoulder to the gray and white rabbit in the driver's seat. Thin, with wiry russet fur, dark brown eartips, and a cream undercoat, he was a red fox in his mid twenties. Silver lensed aviator glasses hid the natural green of his eyes while reflecting the world before him in a mirror like finish.

"You don't even have a driver's license," Judy reminded him, violet eyes glancing over for just a moment before returning her attention to the road.

He made a half-hearted shrug then flashed his partner a wry grin. "Yeah, but who ever minded a silly little detail like that, eh, Carrots?"

Judy groaned and shook her head. "Crazy fox."

"Boring bunny."

The sidelong glare Judy shot at Nick would have made most shrivel, but between them it only earn a smug grin from the fox. A smug grin wiped from his face by a very firm punch to the shoulder. He rubbed at the sore spot and feigned a pout, which was handily ignored by the young rabbit.

Nick had been Judy Hopps' partner for almost a year. His help in solving the missing mammal cases during her rookie week had been nothing short of invaluable. Their skillsets complement one another perfectly. Where Judy had been described as a raging workaholic, or a working ragaholic depending on who one asked. Nick was anything but. Lackadaisical in appearance but with a sharp tongue and a quick wit, he, presented a warm presence to suspects. He had a way of making them feel relaxed and trusting, even if he was putting them into handcuffs.

"Arrived on scene," McHorn's voice crackled over the radio. "Looks like a ten-fifty. No visible injuries."

Nick scoffed and shook his head. He took a sip of his coffee, then set the paper cup on his knee. Balancing it with his hand atop the lid he looked over to Judy. "What do you think, texting while driving, or doing makeup in the mirror?"

"You're the worst," Judy said, laughing softly. Her small fingers tapped along the vinyl rim of the steering wheel.

Her partner wasn't discouraged, however. If anything he seemed emboldened by her dodge.

"Come on, Carrots," Nick teased, his elbow prodding her side. "You know you're curious too."

"Stop it, Nick," she said, trying to be firm in her tone, even if the grin on her lips gave away her actual thoughts.

Clawhauser's tenor voice cut through the static of the radio as though on cue. "Dispatch copies that, McHorn, do you need paramedics sent?"

"Stand-by, Dispatch."

"Totally texting." Nick said, putting his coffee in the drink holder then folding his arms behind his head.

Sighing, Judy shook her head. "I'm not taking that bet again."

"Dispatch, negative on the meat wagons. No injuries, just damaged fenders and egos."

This time it was Bogo's voice that answered McHorn. "You're on an open channel, McHorn."

Nick made a snort of laughter while Judy could only shake her head and smile.

"Copy that. Sorry, Sir."

"So, Carrots," Nick said after a few moments. "Where do you wanna stop for lunch?"

"Hmm." Her fingers tapped a staccato rhythm against the steering wheel. Judy's lips pursed while her nose scrunched ever so slightly. "What about Murrys?"

"Carrots," Nick all but whined the nickname. "We've eaten at Murry's three times this month."

Judy shrugged and took the opportunity to flash a wry grin at him. "And? It's good, cheap, and lets us walk our patrol for a while."

"Yeah, but Fuzzy's is so much better though," Nick said, his tongue flicking over his lips.

This time it was Judy's turn to make a sour face. "Ugh, what's with you and that place?"

"Hey," Nick said, placing a paw over his chest. "Fuzzy's is a classic!"

"It's a dive."

"It's got character."

"It should be condemned."

"If you have a problem with cheap, delicious food."

Judy flicked his arm and glared at her partner. "You just want a beer with your lunch."

"Madam, I am an officer of the law." He pointed to the polished badge that hung from the breast of his uniform. "I would never imbibe on the job."

Before Judy could reply the radio crackled to life. "Dispatch to Hopps, we have a possible ten-fifteen downtown."

Nick reached for the radio, but Judy was quicker. She was always quicker. "Ten-four, Dispatch, what's our twenty?"

A pause of dead air filled their cruiser while Clawhauser confirmed the address. Nick smiled and nudged his sunglasses up a bit higher. "So, shopkeeper wouldn't return a sale, or drunk and disorderly?"

Judy glanced at the clock on the console and smirked. "Shopkeeper."

"Got a wager on that, Fluff?"

"You eager to walk the parking duty route again, Slick?" Judy shot right back.

Nick laughed and shook his head. "So cruel."

"Would you love me any other way?" Judy winked playfully at him.

Nick could only shrug, his lips pulled back in that sly grin he gave her when he wanted to make her angry. Fortunately for them both, the radio interrupted their cordial banter before things got any further.

"Dispatch, Hopps, proceed to Silver Springs Plaza."

"Copy that, Dispatch. Our E.T.A. is three minutes."

The engine of the ZPD cruiser roared when Judy threw it into gear and tore down the street. Nick hit the siren alerting drivers ahead of them to clear a path for their vehicle. Punctual as ever, Judy had them pulling up to Silver Spring Plaza in three minutes exactly. Right away they both identified the problem.

Standing near the reflecting pond and ornamental fountains was a female badger. She didn't seem too old, perhaps early to mid thirties. Her attire was gutter punk style; loose fitting cargo pants and a hooded sweatshirt. While generally harmless, gutter punks presented a reliable headache for the ZPD. Their clothing, never washed, had a uniform greenish-gray color and a pungent odor which could get particularly nasty when more than two or three of them gathered in a space. They often drank openly, though rarely to excess, and mostly presented a general annoyance to tourists and locals alike. That said it only ever took one having a particularly bad drug trip to ruin everybody's day.

Hopps had a feeling this would be one of those ruined days.

The badger was standing facing the fountain, screaming obscenities at the water that spurted high into the air in a staged and somewhat tacky dance. Nick frowned and picked up the radio while Judy put the cruiser into park.

"Dispatch, Wilde, subject spotted. Female, badger, cargo pants and a fetching hoodie that really compliments the grease stains." He paused for a moment, lifting his sunglasses up and squinting to get a better look at the badger. Seemingly satisfied, he pulled them off and set them on the dashboard. "Yeah, she seems pretty worked up about something."

"Copy that, Wilde, do you require backup."

"I think she'll need a bit of detox. Looks like she's just had a bad batch of Nip or something. Gimme a sec." With that, he set down the dashboard receiver and slipped out of the car, taking a moment to adjust his belt before her started to approach the badger.

"Got it, be careful." Clawhauser echoed over the radio.

Judy looked at her partner with an incredulous stare. Hopping out of the car, she thumbed at the radio on her belt and chased after the slowly advancing fox. "Nick?"

He motioned for her to hang back. Craning his neck around so he could see her face, Nick smiled. "Hang back a second. Let me feel her out first."

Biting down on her lower lip, Judy rolled the soft flesh between her teeth. She didn't like it. Something wasn't right. "Nick, be careful."

He twisted around and spread his arms out with his elbows at his hips. "Soul of caution, Carrots. Soul of caution."

She didn't believe him, but she had learned to trust him. Loathe as she was to admit it, Nick had the better read on people. He could tell when a situation was dangerous, and nine times out of ten he could talk his way out of it. It was that quick wit that made him fast friends in the Precinct, and those fast friends that didn't rat him out when he pulled a prank or five.

Nick was all smiles as he approached the badger, and when he spoke it was in the same gentle tone he used when she'd met him hustling jumbo pops a year earlier. "Good afternoon, ma'am, how're you doing?"

"Don't you look at me!" The woman yelled, startling the pedestrians watching from a safe distance. She pointed a finger at Nick, her eyes wide, wild, and pupils shrunk down to tiny pinpricks. "Don't point your filth at me!"

"Hey, easy there," Nick continued. He held his paws up with palms open and exposed her her. Judy taking a step closer. "My name's Nick. Nick Wilde. What's yours?"

Judy's thumb unsnapped the latch holding her radio to her belt. She swallowed once, then held the receiver to her muzzle. "Standby."

"Y-you stay back!" she shouted at him. Her eyes were wild and she scrambled back towards the fountain. A spurt of water from the timer startled her and she stumbled away from the fountain, tripping over herself. Collapsing to the pavement with a thud, the badger made a pained moan. Nick took a cautious step towards her while Judy sprinted.

"Wait!" He tried to warn her, but she didn't listen.

"Miss, are you alright?" Judy asked, crouching beside the badger and trying to help her up. The woman panicked and lashed out at Judy with her claws. Judy scrambled backwards, narrowly avoiding having her eyes raked out as the badger propelled herself closer to the water.

"Carrots!" Nick was at Judy's side in an instant, helping the rabbit to her feet. Concern laced his voice and expression, creasing his brow and weighing down the corners of his mouth like invisible weights. "Are you okay?"

She nodded. "I'm fine."

"Wait here, I'll try to calm her down."

"I'll radio backup" Judy said, pulling the radio from her belt. "Dispatch. Subject is very agitated. Wilde's trying to talk—" Judy caught the badger approaching out of the corner of her eye. Nick tried to keep in front of her to block her path, but little seemed to deter the wild-eyed badger. Judy thrust out her arm and held her paw open. "Miss! Miss, please step back!"

"Fithy!" The badger shouted, her speed picking up. She grabbed Nick's shoulder and shoved him back hard, then charged towards Judy. "Filthy! Filthy! Filthy!"

"Judy, get outta the way!" Nick shouted, chasing after the badger, but his warning came too late.

Judy couldn't react, there just hadn't been time. The badger's fist hit her square in the nose casting the world in a sea of white. By the time her vision recovered Judy became aware that she was no longer on her feet. Instead she was careening into the fountain. The water hit her like a wall and her vision went black. She tried to swim upwards, but felt something heavy pushing her back down.

Panic seized her as she realized what was happening: the badger was trying to drown her. She screamed under the water and tried to claw at the strong paws holding her head under. Yet no matter how hard she kicked and thrashed she couldn't move the badger or escape her grip. Her lungs burned for air they couldn't get. Then, just as quickly as she was thrown, Judy felt her head released. She clawed her way to the surface, and gulped desperate mouthfuls of air into her hungry lungs. Through blurry eyes she could see the badger fighting with someone, a red blur dressed in dark blue.

"Hopps? Hopps, talk to me!"

Judy dragged herself out of the fountain and collapsed onto the pavement, hacking up mouthfulls of chlorinated water.

"Hopps!"

"P-present!" She answered, standing up on shaky legs.

"Get backup!" Nick ordered, doing his best to keep the badger in a headlock.

It took Judy a moment to spot where her radio fell. Stumbling over to the black plastic box, she picked it up and coughed again. "Dispatch," she paused to cough once more, then held the button down again. "Send backup, subject is hostile. Re-repeat," she gasped for another mouthful of air and struggled to hear over the throbbing in her head caused by her racing heart. "Subject hostile, request backup!"

"Negative Hopps, you broke up. Please say again, I repeat: Please say again."

"Dispatch, I say again," Hopps started, sounding more breathless than before. "Backup. Repeat, Subject is hostile. Send Backup!"

"Gun!" Nick screamed

She never saw the weapon, nor did she hear the gunshot. All she heard was a loud ringing in her ears as something slammed into her chest. The force sent her stumbling backwards where she lost her footing and fell to her side. Around her were the muffled screams of the panicked onlookers. They ran in all directions in a sea of blurred color.

Judy thought it strange. At the same time everything was moving so fast she see things with such clarity. A wolf pup, no more than five or six, his eyes clenched shut as his mother scooped him into her arms mid-run. A small herd of goats diving for cover into the Plaza Markets. And Nick, shoulder ramming into the badger's as they struggled with each other for her gun.

The second shot rang out, but the round bounced harmlessly off the concrete. A heavy jerk from the badger proceeded a third shot. This time the round went wild, and Judy heard glass shattering from where it struck a window.

Rolling onto her left side, Judy pawed at her chest. A sense of relief flooded her when she found no blood smearing the fur of her paw, though she felt a good sized divot in the center of her bullet proof vest. Without that vest her paw would have been covered with her blood. Without that vest that cold street would have been her deathbed. She groped for her radio and coughed once as she squeezed the transmit button. "Shots fired! Shots fired!" She yelped and dropped the radio when another shot rang out.

Twisting to her back, Judy sat up. Nick was wrestling with the badger doing his best to keep the barrel of the gun pointed at the ground. She was bigger than he was and stronger to boot, but Nick was quick, both with his wits and his paws. The badger yanked on the gun again, pulling Nick towards her. She must have squeezed the trigger as the gun fired again with the fresh round slamming into Nick's left thigh. He fell instantly but the front sight of the badger's pocket pistol caught on the hem of his vest hiking up the protective garment to expose his stomach.

Time seemed to slow. Judy forced herself to her feet and started to run. She saw Nick's eyes grow wide. He was looking at her, his partner, his best friend. She had to help him. But this time she was just too slow.

The first shot fired, ripping through Nick's unguarded stomach and exiting out his lower back. A second shot hit him slightly lower, splattering blood and fur across the concrete where it tore through his body, a third shot followed that, but lodged somewhere inside her partner. Nick jerked and doubled over, all three shots taking less than a moment. He looked up at the badger, and she looked down at him. His expression was confused, pained, while the badger's was wild and horrified.

She jerked away, and Nick began to fall. A final shot burst from the gun where it hit Nick's chest. His body came to rest on the pavement with a dull thud. Judy forgot the pain under her ruined kevlar and charged forward, screaming a primal cry at the badger. Her roar started the woman, who aimed her gun at Judy.

A flash of light and a loud bang, and Judy found herself face down on the pavement. Pain, searing, blinding, all consuming pain radiated up from her leg. She cried out, grasping at her shin. Blood was pouring from a wound near to her ankle, below the scar she had after slicing her leg open at the natural history museum a year earlier. She looked up, eyes wide as the badger aimed at her head. She pulled the trigger, only for the empty gun to make an impotent click.

In her panic, the badger threw the pistol at Judy, which she slapped out of the air. Judy spat out a curse when a stab of pain shot through her fingers. The badger was coming after her again, and despite Judy's efforts, she could barely move, much less dodge.

Suddenly the badger recoiled, grasping at a dart that pierced her arm. She ripped it out and threw it to the ground, only for two more to strike her. Again she tried to charge, but the tranquilizers were quick to do their work. Her movements were sluggish, uncoordinated, and she slowly stumbled to a halt.

Fangmire and Delgato were on her in a moment, with the lion, Fangmire, pinning her down and putting her in cuffs. Delgato let his larger partner handle the arrest while he rushed to Judy's side.

"Hopps, talk to me!" The white wolf implored her, putting a large hand over her back.

Judy shook her head quickly. "N-Nick!" She shouted, trying to hobble to her downed partner.

Delgato's brow scrunched, then he followed her gaze. "Oh God."

He lifted her up with ease and sprinted over to where Nick lay crumpled on his side in a slowly growing pool of red. Mid-sprint he grabbed his radio. "Dispatch, Delgato. I have a ten double-zero on Wilde, forty-five-C."

"Dispatch copies, Medivac is already en route."

"Tell them to hurry," Delgato replied, putting Judy down and carefully rolling Nick onto his back. "Wilde? Hey, N-Nick, c'mon buddy, talk to us!"

Nick's eyes were wide and his body trembled violently. His breaths were quick gasps, desperate for air. Blood painted his lips and the cream fur around his muzzle. His eyes tracked first to Delgato, then to Judy. She could tell he was trying to speak, but no sounds more than wet gurgles escaped him. There were tears in his eyes, and behind the glistening pools of green she could see something far worse: Nick was scared.

Sirens echoed through the canyons of steel and marble, growing closer with each second that past. Delgato held his paws over the wounds in Nick's stomach with Judy's paws pressing down over the top of his own. Their combined efforts did little to stem the tide of blood which soaked into the pads of their paws. A gurgle escaped Nick's muzzle, the squelch of blood under her and Delgato's paws making Judy's stomach flip.

"Come on, Nick, stay with us," She pleaded while his life seemingly leaked between her fingers. "You gotta stay with me."


	3. Promise Bound By Blood

"Nick?" Judy lightly slapped at the fox's cheek, the blood that covered her paw sticking to his fur. "N-Nick! Come on, stay with me!"

Adrenaline surged through Judy's veins like she had never experienced before. It forced her emotions away, safely stored for a moment when she could afford to process them. She was aware of the pain in her paw, possibly a broken finger, likewise the pain in her shin where a bullet had lodged itself in her leg. She didn't dare look at it though. Right now, though, there was only Nick.

Between gasps for air he tried to speak. A gurgling cough caught Judy's attention. His tongue and teeth had become stained with red. He coughed again, and then again, until each of the weak expulsions sent him into convulsions. Delgato slid his paw from Nick's stomach to his side and rolled the fox towards him. It was all Judy could do not to wretch as blood and bile ejected from Nick's mouth.

With his back off the ground, blood poured unrestricted from the two exit wounds. His dark blue uniform was stained black around the small of his back and down the seat of his pants. Even the thick fur of his tail was steadily becoming saturated with blood. Judy tried to press her paws over the wounds, shuddering from the feel of shredding muscle, skin, and fur, under her paws. Nick, to her great concern, barely flinched.

"Fangmire!" Delgato called out to his partner. "Get the trauma kit!"

Fangmire was there in a moment, skidding to a stop and kneeling down with his knees on either side of Nick's head. His large paws dug into his medical kit and tore out a thick white pad. Training took over, and both Judy and Fangmire moved their paws at the same time. Fangmire pressed the pad over Nick's stomach where the two quickly applied pressure to the wounds. Nick made a strangled moan from that, for which Judy gave him an apologetic look.

With considerable effort, Nick managed to lift his left paw from where it lay on the concrete. His eyes focused on Judy, the trembling paw reaching for her. She didn't think, simply taking his paw in her own and squeezing it reassuringly.

"It's okay, Nick," she lied, voice cracking just a bit. "Help is on the way. Listen, the sirens are almost here. You're gonna be okay." Her voice cracked again and she squeezed his paw tightly.

Nick blinked, the motion lethargic. Fangmire quickly slapped his cheek again, but Nick didn't seem to feel it. "Keep your eyes open, Wilde. Don't think you can quit on us like this."

"..ss...o…oh...Kay.." The sound was soft and muddled by a blood filled gurgle. Nick stared at Judy a moment longer, trying to show her that cocky grin he always gave her when she worried. It broke Judy's heart to see; even laying in the street, his blood draining between their fingers, he tried to pull on last con. Then Nick's eyes grew wide and he seemed to gasp for air. He convulsed under them for a moment before he grew still. Those eyes, usually so sharp and aware, became dull and half-lidded. Finally, his paw grew slack in her grip.

"Nick? Nick!" Judy shouted to him. Fangmire and Delgato mirrored her calls, with Fangmire putting two fingers to Nick's throat.

The lion cursed and immediately pulled an ambu bag from the trauma kit. He swapped out the clear plastic mask with one more fitting Nick's muzzle. With no time to waste he placed it over Nick's mouth and nose, squeezing the self-inflating bag to keep air flowing to the fox. Judy's training kicked in, and while Delgato continued to hold pressure on Nick's stomach, she put her paws on his chest and started compressions.

"One. Two. Three. Four." she counted aloud, giving Fangmire a cue when to squeeze the ambu bag.

"Make a hole!" A female voice called from behind Judy.

Fangmire shuffled over, making space for two paramedics who crouched down by Nick. Judy stopped her compressions when the taller of the two paramedics, a female deer, brushed her paws away. Everything moved so quickly after that. Nick's body was pulled onto a stretcher and rushed into a waiting ambulance which sped off as quickly as it arrived leaving Judy, Fangmire, and Delgato sat around discarded bandages and a pool of blood.

"Grizzoli, set up a perimeter," Judy heard Bogo yell somewhere behind her. "Wolford, Snarlof, Anderson, get those cameras out of here!"

Around her was a constant sense of motion. Mammals in blue uniforms ran from place to place, keeping civilians back as best they could. Near her she saw Delgato staring at his bloodsoaked paws. The white wolf's breaths became more and more rapid and he started to sob even before Fangmire put an arm around his shoulders.

Bogo's massive frame crouched down beside Judy, his hand pressing against her back. He carefully pulled the velcro straps open on her bullet proof vest and helped her out of it. She saw relief flood the buffalo when he saw no blood on Judy's chest. "Breathe, Hopps," he said with as gentle a tone he could manage.

"Fangmire," He looked up at the lion who was trying to calm his partner. "Take Delgato back to the station and get him cleaned up."

"Yes sir," the lion replied. "Come on, Ed," he said in soothing tones, hooking his arm under Delgato's, carefully helping the ironically named white wolf to his feet. "Here we go, buddy. That's it; nice and easy."

Reaching for the trauma bag, Bogo dug inside for a moment. His hunt produced a pair of blue latex gloves which he slipped on. He also took out a small scissors, which he used to start cutting Judy's uniform. He started with the black paw brace and worked his way up to her knee. He then set the scissors aside and peeled away the bloodied fabric.

Something about that feeling didn't sit right with Judy, and she could see the darkness creeping in at the edges of her vision. A sensation not unlike that of a cold sweat broke out over her complimenting the sudden dry feeling in her mouth. "Ch-chief," she managed to gasp out.

Bogo seemed to realize the problem instantly. His strong hands placed themselves on her chest and back, carefully lowering her to a prone position. "It's all right, Hopps. I've got you."

For Judy his words sounded distant, almost like she was talking from one end of a tunnel to another. Her mouth felt so dry and the darkness on the edge of her vision had grown to a point that it was almost all she could see. Then that little pinprick of light disappeared as well.

They say that losing consciousness is like blinking. One moment you are there, and the next you are somewhere else. Usually a well lit hospital room with your loved ones reading the paper at your bedside or quietly sniffling while they wait for you to wake up. Judy wouldn't have minded that. One suspected that it at least made the pain go away. Unfortunately for her, the real thing was far from what the movies promised.

She drifted between seemingly infinitesimal moments of darkness where there was nothing but peace. In between those moments were blurred figures and pain. She felt like she was flying at one point; her body moving from place to place in the grip of strong but gentle arms. Figures moved in front of her like blurred ghosts making indistinguishable sounds that assaulted her ears.

Pain shot through her leg and Judy knew she screamed. Hands of all sizes held her down, forcing her to endure. They made noises to her, noises that she inferred were probably appeals to relax or hold still. She felt something sharp stick the back of her paw followed immediately with cold fluid filling her veins. Judy's teeth ground together as she struggled to endure. Then, like a small miracle, a warmth filtered through the IV in her paw. She felt it climb through her arm and fill her chest. With it came a relief the likes of which Judy had never felt before.

Time passed, though how much she couldn't be sure. She was still aware of things. Scissors cutting her clothes off piece by piece. Paws of all shapes and sizes dressing her in a light blue hospital gown. Finally a bed, firm, with starch white sheets that were warm and covering her from foot to chin.

How long she laid there, not numbed to the world around her, but certainly dulled, she couldn't be sure. All she could think of was Nick's face. The confusion when he'd been shot, the fear, then finally the pain as he fell. All while she had stood there, powerless to stop it. Then the badger, wild eyed and pointing the gun right at her head. One more bullet was all it would have taken. Three shots in Nick instead of four, and bang. Judy awoke with a gasp.

"Wh-where am I?" She croaked out, propping herself up on her elbows.

"Central Teaching Hospital," Chief Bogo's baritone answered her question. She noticed the buffalo, sat in the corner of the room with an open case file in his grip. "Best hospital in the city."

"Chief?" Judy muttered, trying to shake off the medicated haze in her head.

"You're a lucky rabbit, Hopps," Bogo said, closing the manilla folder in his hands. "Half an inch over and that bullet would have torn your leg off instead of giving you a nasty scar. For the record," he said, glancing over the rims of his glasses at her. "It's reasons like that why I put you on parking duty."

Judy groaned. Her leg was throbbing under the covers. She lifted up the white sheet to see a thick white wrapping around her leg. She didn't try to bend it. There was little doubt in her head how well that would end up. "Nick… How's Nick?"

"He's been in surgery for about and hour and a half now," Bogo answered, adjusting his glasses. "Your suspect wasn't so lucky. She was pronounced dead on arrival."

"What?" Judy balked, cringing from the sharp pain in her leg. "That's...how?!"

"Quiet down, Hopps, you've got a lot of morphine in you, but it won't help if you hurt yourself further." Bogo said in a firm tone. "They'll know more after an autopsy. For the moment it looks like a bad reaction to whatever was in her system plus our tranquilizers."

Judy could only shake her head. The ZPD adopted tranquilizers as a nonlethal form of capture. The drug inside had been tested for years against a cocktail of narcotics, blood types, medical conditions, and mammals to ensure they were safe to use.

But nothing was ever perfect.

"Did," Judy struggled to keep her voice even. Despite what the badger had done to Nick, what she had done to Judy, she was still a living being, killed by those sworn to protect and serve. "Did she have any family?"

Bogo shook his head. "No ID was found on her. We've got her picture out there and we're searching the records for matching missing mammals. I wouldn't hold my breath, though. I've seen her type before. We'll be lucky to hear from any family who cares she's even dead."

Judy had so many questions flood her mind, but before she could ask them there was a gentle knock on the door. Bogo tossed his folder down on the end table as he rose to his full height. He walked to the door, which Judy couldn't see from her bed. A moment later he returned with a panther dressed in teal scrubs.

"Hopps, this is Dr. Ramos," Bogo said as he stepped beside her bed. Judy's heart skipped a beat. He never stood so close to anyone unless something was wrong. "He's the surgeon working on Wilde."

"Nick," Judy corrected him without thinking. "I-is he okay? Why aren't you in there?"

Dr. Ramos cleared his throat before speaking. He had a feline purr to his voice and a soft-spoken baritone that was naturally soothing. "Officer Hopps," the panther began. His tone was professional and impersonal, the proper doctor's tone. "Officer Wilde listed you has his emergency contact. As far as we can determine he has no next of kin for us to contact. So we have to discuss advanced directives."

"Advanced...directives?" Judy rolled the term on her tongue. She felt stunned. Nick never spoke of his family. He never spoke much about any serious topics outside of work. It was his way, Judy figured. "Wh-what's wrong? Is Nick okay?"

Bogo cleared his throat and leaned forward. "Hopps, it…" he paused to sigh. "It's about living will."

Ramons nodded, though the look on his face suggested the actual effect was far more complicated than Bogo made it sound. "Currently we have Officer Wilde in surgery. The damage is extensive, particularly to his liver. Now, the liver can regrow with time if we can stabilize him, but currently Mr. Wilde is responding poorly to treatment."

"Poorly?" Judy felt so small as the word spilled from between her lips, a meek, hollow tone to her voice that would have made the proud rabbit ashamed in any other circumstance. Bogo gently grabbed her shoulder and gave it a gentle squeeze.

"Mr. Wilde experienced cardiac arrest en route to the hospital. His heart was stopped for approximately two minutes before the paramedics got it started again. About thirty minutes ago his heart stopped again. I massaged his heart myself and we were able to bring him back again. To be perfectly frank, though, I don't know if we can keep it going. Add to that, he has lost a significant amount of blood." Ramos sighed, his paw rubbing at the back of his neck. "He's losing it almost as fast as we can replace it. Furthermore we have yet to fully visualize the extent of his abdominal cavity, however what we can see so far does not look promising. I would not be doing my job if I didn't keep you informed of his prospects."

"And what are those?" Judy asked, forcing herself to keep control.

"There is a very real probability that Mr. Wilde will not survive the operation. If he does then there's still a significant risk of infection, liver failure, sepsis, and more. I can't give you a better idea at this time, I'm sorry."

"Why? Why are you telling me this?" Judy asked.

"Because in the circumstance that Mr. Wilde's heart stops again, my team needs to know if we should continue attempting to resuscitate him."

"What kind of question is that?" Judy balked.

"Hopps," Bogo placed a hand on her shoulder. The look in his eyes felt like a knife buried in her heart.

Dr. Ramos didn't seem affected. He looked her in the eye with both patience yet insistence. "You are the closest thing he has to next of kin or power of attorney. I'm sorry, but this decision falls to you."

The damn, crumbling slowly since the first shot had smashed into her chest, collapsed. Her breaths became ragged and fresh tears burned at her eyes and blurred her vision. "You try whatever it is you have left to try," Judy said, gasping for breaths as the tears fell from her cheeks. The carved wet lines in the gray and white fur of her cheeks before they fell from her chin like bitter rain. "B-but we're...we're not giving up on him. H-He wouldn't give up on anyone else."

Ramos nodded and started to speak, only to be cut off by a buzz from his pocket. He pulled a small black pager out and stood up. "I have to get back to the operating room. Someone will be in touch soon."

"Wa-wait," Judy pleaded, but the panther had already disappeared out the door. A gentle click echoed through the room when the door closed behind him.

Judy put her head in her paws and wept, her small shoulders shaking like leaves in the cold autumn breeze. There were so many questions she wanted to ask. Her partner, her best friend, was laying opened up on an operating room table, and there was nothing she could do to help except beg the doctors and nurses to keep trying. She hated to be powerless. She hated to be uninformed. But right now, there was nothing else for Judy to be.

"Hopps," Bogo said her name softly. "Hopps, look at me."

It took her a moment to collect herself, but Judy obeyed the command. Her waterlogged, violet eyes met Bogo's golden orbs. She saw in his gaze sympathy, and perhaps even pain. But where hers was fresh, raw, his was old and scarred over, if still tender. "I need you to promise me something, Hopps."

"S-sir?"

Bogo's head dipped as did his tone. Old hurt may scar, but it never stopped being tender. "I've had to bury officers lost on the line before, Hopps. It's never easy. But promise me that for Wilde's sake-"

"I'm never giving up on him!" Judy cried.

"Hopps." His tone was curt and made her shrink back from him. With a sigh, Bogo placed both hands on her shoulders. "Judy. Please. I don't want to lose any officer. But I don't want any of them to suffer needlessly either. If it comes down to it, promise me you'll let him go."

"I-I can't," she mewled, her body shaking under him. "I c-can't…"

"Judy," Bogo beckoned her. "He needs you to be strong. But you have to be prepared to make that call if the time comes. Now promise, not for me, but for Nick."

Her eyes squeezed shut and her teeth ground together. Judy could see Nick's face, just that morning. The casual lean on the wall of her cubicle he always had, with one arm while sipping at a paper cup full of the bitter, overly strong coffee that Grizzoli made when he got to the coffee pot first. Nick would smile, sass her a bit, then follow her to the car with a casual ' _You're the boss, Carrots_ '.

What would he say if he could speak to her now, Judy wondered. Of course she knew in her heart that he would tell her everything was alright. He'd bend down, paws on his knees and that smug grin splitting his face ear to ear and assure her everything would be fine. That he believed in her to be strong. And with a pat on her head, he'd stand up and tell her it was time.

Not that it made the words any easier as they finally spilled from her lips. "I...I promise."


	4. The Knife That Cuts Deepest

Minutes on the clock moved, steadily, tick-by-tick turning into hours. Judy had long since lost track of how long they had been waiting with no word from the doctors. Bogo stayed with her the entire time, mostly keeping to his reports and managing the ZPD via his cellphone. He had tried to comfort her, but after a while he had determined it best to let her weep.

Judy was grateful for that.

Two hours after Ramos had spoken to them a nurse had come by. She gave Judy a little more medicine for the pain, then took her back for xrays of her paw. Her pinky and middle fingers were fractured, and another hour later they were splinted and wrapped in heavy gauze that itched like the dickens. It had been helpful to have something to focus on. Even if the focus was the constant throbbing in her leg or the sharp sting she got when the nurse splinted her fingers a little too tightly. Anything was better than nothing.

She wondered what her leg looked like under the thick dressings that went from her ankle to her knee. There hadn't been time to look at it earlier. All she knew was it hurt. A lot. Oh, and the nurses told her she'd be on crutches for two weeks at a minimum. At least if she wanted to avoid surgery instead of just sutures.

Perhaps it was her nature as a rabbit, but Judy was never good at waiting. She found herself growing more and more anxious by the minute. At her request, and perhaps a little of Bogo's pleading, a nurse brought Judy her things. Her uniform was ruined, but they had at least taken care to get all her items out of it before they'd thrown the bloody shreds of cloth in a biohazard bin.

She sat there for a time, staring at her reflection on the screen of her kPhone. Her paws rested other thighs which inclined slightly from a pillow tucked under her knees. Judy felt her heart sink, staring into the emptiness of her screen. This morning she had seen herself as an officer. Now she saw only a failure.

With nothing else to do, and the ZPD not requiring his direct attention, Bogo took the remote from Judy's bed and turned on the small TV mounted to the far wall. He spent a few moments flipping through the various channels until he found a news channel. The ZNN daytime anchor, a koala dressed smartly in a blue suit with a contrasting red tie was showing cellphone video of Silver Springs Plaza.

The camera shook in the unsteady paws of whoever held it. Judy could see the badger punching her in the face. She didn't realize that she'd stumbled back, or that Nick and immediately leapt into action. All she remembered was seeing white. Nick leapt onto the suspect's back, putting her in a headlock to try and bring her down. It only seemed to annoy the badger though, and she picked Judy up and threw her into the fountain.

"And we can see here," the anchor said, his nasal tone giving sound to the video. "The suspect attacking ZPD officers on the scene. For those who aren't aware the responding officers were Hopps and Wilde, Zootopia's first rabbit and fox officers respectively. Details are still coming in, however eyewitness accounts say that the unidentified badger was screaming incoherently before officers arrived. Most say that Officer Wilde approached her first and tried to speak with her before the attack."

Bogo pulled his cellphone from his pocket and dialed a number that Judy couldn't see. He held his phone to his ear while staring down the TV with no small amount of malice. "Clawhauser, get in contact with the media relations officer. Tell them to call ZNN and demand they stop playing footage of the Silver Springs case." He hung up without waiting for a reply and levied a sigh. "Dammit."

Judy felt her heart skip a beat while Bogo looked like he was trying to telepathically kill the poor anchor. He thumbed up the volume on the remote so they could both hear it better. They both felt a wave of relief when the footage cut before the badger started trying to drown Judy.

"Again," the reporter continued, "we here at the ZNN have made the editorial decision not to show the next few moments of the video as they are very graphic. Eyewitnesses at the scene reported shots fired and it was confirmed that one or both of the officers responding were shot. I regret to inform you that we have no news of their condition at this time. The Zootopia Police Department could not be reached for comment at the time of this broadcast. We'll be right back with the latest from the scene."

Judy felt sick as the news cut to a somber shot of yellow tape around Silver Springs Plaza. Blood, Nick's blood, just barely visible in the bottom of the frame. Her best friend was fighting for his life in an operating room, and television was making spectacle of it. She growled, her sadness giving way to a primal fury that she'd never known before.

Bogo sensed it and patted her back. "Easy, Hopps. Don't break your other paw."

"If it was in service to breaking someone's nose at ZNN, I'd take it," she spat. "They've got no business putting that on TV!"

"Speaking of that, you should take a deep breath, and then call your family," Bogo said. "Tell them you are alright before they see it on the news."

Judy stared at her feet, which created two small mountains under her covers. A peculiar mix of embarrassment and shock flooded her mind. She hadn't even thought about calling them since talking to the doctor. Judy shuddered, she could already hear her parents panicking. They never forgave her for growing up, or being a cop. Of course they were proud and supportive of her work, but forgiving, not so much.

Gulping, she unlocked her phone and hit 'Mom and Dad' on her contacts. The phone rang and her heart started to race. What would she tell them? Ring. What did they know? Ring. Would they over react?

' _Please don't let Dad answer. Please don't let Dad answer. Please don't let Dad answer.'_

"Hey there, Jude the Dude!" Her father said in his typical drawl.

' _Crap._ '

Judy winced visibly and steeled herself. "Hey Dad, is Mom there?"

"Naw, your mom's in town taking some of the little ones out for a while. What's up, honey?" He paused, seeming to sense something was amiss. "Is everything okay?"

Silence answered his query, and her father's tone grew concerned.

"Judy? Sweetheart? What's wrong?"

It took a firm prod from Chief Bogo to get her to snap out of her nervous lock. Judy gulped heavily. "Dad, first off, I'm okay."

Her voice must have trembled, because her father seemed to realize immediately something was far from 'okay'.

"Judy, it's okay, just tell me what happened honey."

" _..ss...o…oh...Kay.." Nick tried to tell her though blood that bubbled from between his lips. She felt his fingers weakly squeezing at her paw before he grew slack._

Judy's breathing became ragged. The way his body convulsed, the pungent, metallic smell of his blood, the fear in his eyes even as he tried to smile. It wouldn't leave her mind. She could still feel Nick's blood on her paws, seeping between her fingers despite how hard she had tried to keep it back. Her voice cracked, and for the second time that day, Judy wept.

"N-Nick's been shot," she lamented into the phone.

"Nick? You mean that fox partner of yours?!" Stu sounded stunned, then seemed to recover when Judy made an affirming whimper. Her father gasped and the speaker producing a rough scraping noise when he nearly dropped the phone. "Oh, God, Judy, honey. J-just take a nice deep breath, baby. Are you okay? What happened?"

"I t-tried, dad…" she hiccuped, laying her head back on the pillows. "I tried to stop her. I tried so hard…I couldn't help him...I should have been able to help him..."

"Judy, Judy, it's gonna be okay," her father pleaded with her over the phone, but his words fell on deaf ears.

Without ceremony, Bogo stepped in and took the phone from Judy's paw. She hardly noticed it was gone, pressing her palms over her eyes as the sobs once more wracked her body. Her father called to her, imploring her to talk and breathe, but Judy couldn't. All she saw was Nick laying in that plaza with his blood on her paws.

"Mr. Hopps? This is Chief Bogo speaking." A pause, Judy was vaguely aware of her father's panicked shouts over the phone. "Officer Hopps has a couple broken fingers and a scrape on her leg. I promise you, sir, she is going to be fine." Bogo said, downplaying the injury to her leg. "No sir, we don't know all the details of what happened yet. We're still reviewing...Yes. Yes, I understand that. No, no, she's just very upset right now. Officer Wilde is…" Bogo paused and glanced at Judy. She had calmed somewhat, but couldn't bring herself to open her eyes, much less sit up and take the call again. "It's very touch and go at the moment. It's hard on all of us. Yes. Yes. If you and your wife can make arrangements for a train I'll see to it there's a hotel nearby you two can stay at." Bogo paused again, letting her father talk. "No. No, I don't think she can talk right now. Yes, I promise she will not be alone tonight. Yes sir. Central Teaching Hospital. We'll see you tomorrow."

Bogo held the phone to Judy's ear. The soft flesh twitched at the touch of the device, warmed by Bogo's cheek. She heard her father breathing heavily, and in a clearer state of mind Judy would have been proud at how well he kept himself together. Forcing his voice to remain as even as possible when he spoke, her father reassured her. "Sweetheart, your mom and I will be on the next train out to Zootopia. You just hang in there, okay?" He waited, listening to her sniffles and gasps. "Okay, Jude?"

"Okay," she mewled for him.

"I love you baby,"

"Love you too, Dad" Judy managed to say before the call ended.

Bogo watched the young officer for a moment, then sat down after pulling his chair closer to the bed. "I'll send an officer to your apartment to get you a change of clothes. You can stay with my wife and I tonight if you like."

Judy shook her head. "I-I should be here," she said, sniffling, then letting out a slow breath. "Nick...Nick-"

"Would tell me to pick you up by the scruff of your neck and carry you out," Bogo said with just the hint of a smile.

Judy laughed in spite of her emotional state. "Of course he would."

Waiting for the moment to pass naturally, Bogo placed his large hand on Judy's knee. The touch was gentle, and it drew her attention back to him. "Hopps, you can't blame yourself for what happened today."

Judy slouched forward. "I was the officer in charge, he's my partner, it was my responsibility to look out for him. It's my fault he g...got shot."

Bogo shook his head with a grunt. "No,Hopps. It wasn't your fault or Wilde's. It was that badgers fault and bad luck, nothing more. You can't change the past. There's nothing you could have done different or better. I know it doesn't feel like it now," he continued, patting her knee gently. "But I promise you that no matter what happens, the pain will heal in time. So we must look to the future."

A gentle knock interrupted their chat, which Judy was ashamed to feel grateful for. A lioness in pink scrubs entered the room with Fangmire and Delgato trailing close behind her. Delgato had cleaned up and put on a new uniform. It looked a couple sizes too big for the wolf, a fact Judy would have laughed at any other day. Fangmire had an arm around his back where he occasionally squeezed Fangmire's shoulder. They both offered Judy smiles when they got into the room, a courtesy she returned, but all three felt hollow.

The lioness was short for her species with a light build and green eyes. A simple gold band decorated her left ring finger. In her paws she held onto a small plastic bag. "Sorry for interrupting," she said, offering a pleasant, if meaningless smile. "My name's Keira, I'm taking over for the shift nurse. "How are you feeling, Judy?"

"Been better," she answered with an honest shrug.

Keira nodded. "I can imagine. How's the pain?"

Judy shrugged. "Could be worse."

Keira paused, eyes shifting from Judy to Bogo and back again. "Well, if it helps, we'll be able to release you tonight so long as you have someone to go home with. Do you have anyone you live with?"

Judy could only shake her head in answer to the question.

"She can stay with any of us," Delgato piped up and Fangmire nodded.

"Officer Hopps has no shortage of willing hosts," Bogo confirmed to the nurse. "The ZPD takes care of our own."

Keira nodded. "That's good, but Ms. Hopps, you really shouldn't be alone while you're on those crutches. It's going to be very difficult taking care of yourself like that."

"My parents will be in town," Judy said, more to make the lioness go away than anything. She was so tired.

"Sorry if this is awkward," Kira said, shifting her attention from Judy to Bogo, and back again. "But given the nature of Mr. Wilde's case we thought we should ask if we should hold onto his personal items, turn them over to the ZPD, or to you, Judy. The case his phone came in was very bloody, but once we got it open the phone itself was clean. We've disposed of the case."

"Give them to Hopps," Bogo answered.

Nodding once, the lioness handed Judy the clear plastic bag. There wasn't much inside, a smartphone, his ZPD issued wrist watch, Nick's badge, sunglasses, a beaten up pocket notebook, pen, and his wallet. Judy held the bag in her lap and stared at it as though she'd been given a sacred tome from ages long past.

"If you two want to stay that's fine," Keira said to Fangmire and Delgato. "Just know we can't make you very comfortable in here.

"We'll be fine," Fangmire said. "Thank you, though."

"Is there any news on Nick?" Delgato asked, the worry behind his words causing his voice to tremble.

Keira shook her head. "Sorry, but I'm just the nurse for this floor. I'll put a call up to the OR though."

Delgato's ears sank, but he nodded all the same.

With no other questions forthcoming, Keira took Judy's blood pressure and wrote down her vitals. She dipped out of the room and returned a few minutes later with a cup of water and a little white pill in a clear plastic thimble. Judy took the pill without argument, hoping it would numb more than the pain in her paw and leg.

Keira left and Delgato sat in the only other chair in the room while Fangmire slipped into the hall. He claimed it was to find another chair, but Judy was fairly sure he also wanted to sneak another look at the lioness. Before he came back, Judy had opened the bag of Nick's things and spread them out on her lap.

Curiosity took hold, and she took his pocket notebook and began flipping through the pages. Most pages seemed to be a fairly standard day journal with times written down and brief accounts of the events he had done. Sometimes Nick scratched out notes on an interesting case, phone numbers, or appointments as well. There were also several playful, if unflattering, doodles of Chief Bogo, Judy, and half the department lining the margins.

Judy put the booklet back in the bag before she started to blush.

"How are you feeling, Delgato?" Bogo asked.

"Present, sir," he answered quietly. "I… I'm sorry about earlier."

"Don't be, it's normal."

"Mind if we stick around, Judy?" Fangmire asked.

A small, but genuine smile formed on her muzzle, and Judy nodded. "I'd appreciate it, guys. And," Judy felt the familiar lump building in her throat once more. "And I know Nick would too."

The mood in the room was quiet and sullen, with the four officers drifting in their own thoughts and concerns. Above them the ZNN news anchors drone on and on, showing the same footage on loop much to the anger of Judy, Bogo, Fangmire, and Delgato. They broke from the coverage to a panel discussion, with the anchor, a slender doe dressed sharply in a pink blazer with a black blouse underneath moderating.

For the most part it was the same arguments over and over again. Nick liked to call them morning circus panels where one guest was arguing for viewpoint A while the other guest argued for viewpoint B, all while the moderator led them with softball questions. Judy paid it no mind, at least until one of the panelists, a heavyset beaver, said a line that made her hackles rise.

"I think it's not just a drug problem, but also partially on the shoulders of the responding officers."

"Surely you're not blaming the cops on the scene," the anchor asked looking genuinely surprised.

The beaver shook his head. "Not everyone may be ready to accept fox police officers now, and if you look at the tape it seems as though he was inciting the badger. Then he tried to choke her out! Of course she responded the way she did. A fox was attacking her from behind."

"Now I'm sorry, but that has to be the dumbest thing I've ever heard," the other panelist, a middle aged timber wolf interrupted. "He's a smaller mammal trying to get the suspect to stop drowning his partner. We all saw the tape. Officer Hopps would've been dead if not for Wilde's actions."

"But that's not the point we're discussing," The beaver countered, a bony finger pointing at the wolf. "We're discussing how an officer who may or may not have been qualified was put in a situation that he couldn't handle."

"It sounds like you're suggesting Wilde is only on the force because of the Mammal Inclusion Initiative and not because of personal merit."

The moderator leaned forward. "Is that what you're suggesting?"

"If the shoe fits," the beaver admitted with a shrug.

"Turn it off," Judy hissed between her teeth. Bogo nodded, and the TV clicked off a moment later.

"What a prick," Fangmire growled, lips curled up into a sneer as he glared at the black TV screen.

"Ignore it," Bogo said, pinching the bridge of his nose. "That's tomorrow's fight."

It didn't help. Judy certainly wanted nothing more than to show the beaver just how qualified she was at close quarters combat. "You ever see Nick's sparring?" She asked, trying to distract herself from the rage and sorrow.

"Some of us have actual jobs to do, Hopps," Bogo said. His voice was deadpan, but the glimmer in his eye and subtle upward curl of his lips gave away the teasing humor.

"He's a slippery bastard," Delgato chimed in with a grin and a wag of his tail. "Never threw a single punch when I got into the ring with him. Just danced around me for ten minutes until he got behind me and got a headlock."

This time it was Judy's turn to laugh. "I don't think I've ever seen him throw a punch or kick. First time I took him on he just stood there and waited. I'd step forward, he'd step back. All the while he just kept talking and talking and talking!"

"Just makes you wanna punch his teeth in." Fangmire nodded.

Judy smiled as she nodded. "See, that's what I realized. He baits you to where he wants you, then bam!" She slapped her paws together only to spit out a curse at the sharp sting in her broken fingers. Judy could hear her partner's wry laugh at her self-inflicted misery. His damnable smirk as he calmly baited everyone to go right where he wanted them. Her smile faltered.

' _I'm not looking for trouble either, sir. I just wanna buy a Jumbo Pop for my little boy.'_

He always knew just how to play her.

Fangmire and Delgato saw her mood start to fall again, and tried to pick her back up. Together they chatted away the hours, pausing when Wolford arrived with a change of clothes from Judy's locker back at the station. Helped her size the crutches, and ushered Judy into the bathroom. After a bit of a struggle to get her sweatpants over the thick wrap around her leg, Judy emerged from the bathroom feeling somewhat normal. Wolford stayed for nearly an hour, then left with a promise to be called if there was news. The TV had turned back on at some point, though the channel had been changed to a different network playing nonsensical reality shows that served as nothing more than background noise.

Ramos didn't appear again until well past six in the evening, pulling a rolling chair behind him. He paused, seeming surprised at the additional officers in the room, then cleared his throat to get their attention. Immediately the muted chatter went silent with only the gentle mumblings of the television to fill the air. Judy groped for the remote and turned that off a moment later. Her eyes met Ramos', and instantly she felt her chest grow tight.

"Ms. Hopps, Chief Bogo," Ramos greeted them and glanced at Fangmire and Delgato. "Is it alright if we talk like this, or would you prefer somewhere more quiet?"

"This is fine," Judy said quickly.

"Good news first, he's still alive," Ramos said, giving his audience a moment to exhale and relax.

"So what's the bad news?" Delgato asked, canine optimism seeming to perk him up. "Is he up and talking already?"

Ramos smiled, but it was more out of politeness than humor. "I want you to know that we did everything we could for Nick. He is out of surgery and into the ICU, but I'm afraid that his prognosis does not look good." Ramos twisted his chair around so that he was sitting on the edge with his left arm on the backrest. "The first bullet entered here, right below the ribcage." He prodded at his abdomen with two fingers. "This was the most severe damage and loss of blood. The second bullet hit lower and went clean through his kidney. I feel confident that we were able to repair the damage in both those cases, but we won't know for sure for another 48 hours at least. The last bullet is the one I have the most concerns about. It's currently lodged in his thorassic spine."

"What's the damage?" Bogo asked, his usual calm facade beginning to crack.

"The bone is cracked, but I can't tell if or how bad any damage might be to the spinal cord. If he survives there is a fifty/fifty chance that Mr. Wilde will be a paraplegic."

"Oh God," Judy gasped.

"What are his chances?"

"I can only give you a guess, but he's got a 25% of surviving the night. After that, either his body will start to heal and we'll see his liver regrowing when we do another CT scan in 48 hours, or it won't, and Mr. Wilde will decline rapidly. The rest is up to Nick and whatever higher power you believe in. He's in the intensive care ward. You can come up and see him, but you cannot go into the room."

"What about transplants?" Bogo asked.

Ramos could only shake his head. "Fox donors are very rare. Even the priority waiting list for transplants is months long at best. If Mr. Wilde doesn't show improvement in the next day, then I'm afraid that the next step would be to remove life-support and keep him comfortable.

Judy felt her heart break, as though crushed by icy fingers. Everything felt so surreal, like it was through a television in a separate room. Even the sobs of her fellow officers, or the paws squeezing her shoulders in a futile attempt to comfort her. All she felt was that strange, distant, swelling pain.

Like an oncoming train it steadily advanced towards her. She could see it coming. She could feel it coming. Yet there wasn't a single thing she could do to avoid it. And when that train hit, she felt every second of the terrible crush. From the bottom of her feet to the very tips of her ears it encompassed her; consumed her.

The primordial, anguished cry that escaped her was a sound none could describe.


	5. Nicholas P Wilde

" _It looks like a prison cell_ " was the first thought that came to Judy's mind when she was shown into the Intensive Care Ward. Then again, the cells in Cliffside Asylum had been almost exactly the same in their setup. Clear plexiglass walls separated her, Bogo, Delgato, and Fangmire from Nick, who laid in the center of bed sized for mammals at least three times larger, as though in state of repose.

His muzzle was open with a transparent tube going down his throat and secured in place by opaque, off white, tape. Dried flecks of blood decorated the fur around his chin and lips. A bag half filled with dark red blood was hooked into his arm through a standard IV line, replacing the fluids he'd left in Silver Springs Plaza and in the operating room. Still countless more wires and tubes seemed to connect Nick to the wall of machinery around the head of the bed.

Every few moments Judy saw his jaw twitch. The tiny motion accompanied a matching rise of his chest, which Ramos explained was normal breathing for a patient with his injuries. It didn't make it any easier to watch, though, and Judy's heart broke for every pained gasp that Nick took.

He looked so frail laying there, bare except for the thin white sheet covering him from the waist down. Judy stared at his stomach where thick white bandages wrapped around his body like a brace. Hidden underneath were the three holes in his body that had nearly taken his life and still might.

'I did this.' She told herself mournfully. In her paws she clutched his badge, unable to let it out of her paws since Ramos had talked to them. He had sat with them for nearly two hours, letting them cry, ask questions, and cry some more. The best news of the night had been that the final shot which had struck Nick in the chest had been stopped by his kevlar vest. He had a cracked rib, but nothing more.

Only Bogo had maintained his composure during the meeting. Judy had been incensed at first. How dare _he_ of all people be so callous to Nick's condition. She wanted to lash out, at least until she noticed the sag in his shoulders. It was then she realized how badly he hurt, and more to the point, how hard he worked to keep that hurt inside. In many ways he was just like Nick. Neither the fox nor the bull dared to show their emotions publicly, and in Nick's case, even privately. It made Judy wonder if he has a story similar to the one Nick hinted to her a year ago while riding the sky tram out of the Rainforest District.

In that moment her anger melted away, and once more Judy only had her pain to keep her company.

Ramos fetched a wheelchair, sized for a lion, not a bunny, and guided the four ZPD officers up to the ICU. Judy had insisted that she could walk herself up with the crutches, but Bogo had made it very clear that if she could swallow her pride and take the wheelchair, or spend the rest of her career as metermaid for City Hall. They passed through heavy wood and metal doors locked by a security card clipped to Ramos' belt which led them into the sterile Intensive Care Ward.

Built not unlike a suburban cul-de-sac, the door revealed a corridor that extended down to a circular area. In the center of the circle were two half-ring desks facing opposite of one another. Mammals in scrubs sat behind those desks, monitoring every patient in their ward closely. The end of the cul-de-sac led to eight separate rooms, each segregated by the same plexiglass wall. By the look of things, Judy observed only two other rooms happened to be presently occupied.

"His eyes are open," Fangmire observed, keeping his voice down. "Is he awake?"

Judy clenched the badge tighter in her paws and looked. Sure enough she saw Nick has his eyes ever so slightly open, just enough for the familiar green to be visible. She felt her heart flutter and a sense of glee build from her stomach and work its way up. At least until Ramos shook his head, a soft frown on his lips.

"No, he's not actually conscious. Trust me, with all the drugs we're giving him for pain, plus the shock, and blood loss, he wouldn't want to be awake right now." Ramos regarded the fox from beyond the thin wall of glass. "But, even with all those drugs, your body still feels pain. It's not uncommon to hear a patient moan on the operating table. We keep everyone as comfortable as we can…" he let the thought trail off. There was no need to continue.

Judy put her left paw against the glass and stared at Nick. No matter how many times she looked, nor how hard she tried to rationalize what had happened, it never seemed to feel right. His place was out on the streets, watching her back and causing trouble, not malingering on an anonymous hospital bed where he was segregated from contact.

"Let me in," Judy said, looking up to Ramos as she held Nick's badge over her hear. "Please."

"No."

"Please, just for a minute," Judy pleaded with him, shrugging off Bogo's paw when he tried to touch her shoulder.

"Nick is very weak right now," Ramos said with the patience of an experienced surgeon. "The smallest push could push him over the edge, and then he's gone." Ramos held up a single clawed finger. "One germ. That's all it takes. One germ from his well meaning friends and Nick's immune system collapses. You figure out the rest."

Judy shrunk in her chair and fought back the tears that threatened to claim her again. "Please… H-he shouldn't be alone."

"I'm sorry," Ramos said, though his tone sounded anything but. "He's simply too fragile right now."

"I'll wear a hazmat suit if that's what it takes," Judy told him, meaning every word of it. "Just, please, he's my partner, I need to be there for him."

"We'll see how he is in the morning." Ramos was firm ion his position. "Until then I want to let him rest as much as possible."

Judy felt her temper flare through the haze of painkillers in her veins. Usually she could control it. Growing up in a family as large as hers was one was expected to keep their temper in check. However nothing about growing up on the farm could have prepared her for what had happened earlier that day, and she only just managed to suppress a growl. "He has a right to visitors."

Ramos was unmoved to the point that he barely seemed to hear Judy's indignance. "He does, of course, but Intensive care is reserved for immediate family only. If I could find a contact for his parents or siblings, if any, then you wouldn't be up here in the first place."

Judy felt the wheelchair move under her, with Bogo angling it away from Nick. "Dr. Ramos, I expect a call immediately if there should be any changes."

"Of course, sir."

Bogo nodded, the motion accompanied by a snort. "Good. Fangmire, Delgato, let's go."

Both of the veteran officers nodded and took a parting look at the comatose fox in the too-large bed. Delgato put a paw on the glass and smiled. "Kick Death's bony ass, Nick." He said before walking slowly down the hall.

"Don't think dyin' will get you out of that cash you owe me in poker," Fangmire added, gently knocking on the plexiglass.

"I thought you owed Nick about seventeen billion?" Delgato smirked, his elbow prodding his partner's side.

The lion blushed and made an annoyed growl. "Aren't you supposed to be on my side?"

Judy said nothing, the sound of their banter drifted off. She simmered quietly while Bogo wheeled her out of the ICU. She wanted to argue, to force her way on the issue. But even she recognized a lost cause when she was presented with one. She may have been guilty of a choleric temper, but so was Bogo. And he was bigger. Also, her boss.

 _Rabbit, zero. Buffalo, one,_ she could already hear Nick chiding her.

Her paws clenched into tight balls, squeezing until she felt that her claws might break the soft flesh of her palms. An elevator and a long ride through the winding hospital corridors later, Judy was left alone while Bogo retrieved his squad car from the parking garage. A nurse gave her a stack of discharge instructions along with a pair of aluminum crutches sized for a rabbit.

The large black and white car rumbled up to the entrance and parked just under the large glass awning. Judy looked up, the daylight nearly gone and the stars beginning to decorate the sky in a thousand points of light. It was revolting to her.

Why should the world go on as normal when Nick clung to life by the tips of his claws? He was stuck in that cold, sterile room, alone save for the the machines hooked into his body. Judy snapped her head to the side and did her best to force the thoughts from her mind.

' _Breathe,'_ she told herself, repeating the word over and over. What had worked when she was young and trying not to blow up at her brothers and sisters seemed far less effective as Bogo helped her into his squad car.

After she was buckled in with the small crutches laid over her lap, Bogo circled back around to the drivers seat. The two rode together for what seemed a sort of eternity without a single word uttered between them. Only the occasional radio traffic broke the silence.

Judy found herself starting to giggle, which earned a look of concern from Bogo.

"What?"

"Nothing, sir," Judy said, her giggles turning into gales of laughter. "I-it just struck me… This is what N-Nick and I are like on p-patrol Every morning."

Judy laughed and laughed until tears spilt from her eyes. The now familiar burn only made her laugh harder until she finally lowered her head into her paws and began to weep all over again. She couldn't make the tears stop, no matter how hard she tried.

"I-I'm sorry… I'm sorry," she managed to stutter out between breaths.

Bogo shook his head. "Hopps, you don't have to be sorry about anything. It's," he paused, seemingly searching for the right words before continuing with a slight hesitation in his tone. "Its for the best not to fight this."

A nod was all Judy could manage.

They reached Bogo's home nearly thirty minutes later, and to her great protest, Bogo carried Judy inside and set her on his couch along with the plastic bags from the hospital containing her and Nick's things. His wife had doted over Judy much like her own mother would. Judy was taken to an empty guest bed, sized for mammals easily six times her size and helped up onto the mattress. Bogo put an ottoman at the side of the bed to act as a step stool for her. Eventually she was left alone again, the door to the guest room wide open in case she needed to call for help.

She wasn't terribly surprised when sleep eluded her. Everytime she closed her eyes Judy saw that terrible morning in Silver Springs Plaza. Judy dreaded to think of the nightmares she'd have when she eventually managed to sleep again. To avoid that end, or at least delay it for as long as possible, Judy reached for the clear plastic bag on the nightstand, once more removing Nick's things from within.

Among the small assortment of items, the one she plucked from the warmth of her lap was his cell phone. She studied the black device, vaguely noting her own haggard reflection in the glass. The face that looked back at her was one she barely recognized.

Pushing the home button on Nick's phone, she tapped in the six-digit unlock code. Nick was protective of his phone, and while Judy never got to play with it, that had hardly stopped her from watching him on their breaks. She'd known his code for nearly six months because of that.

Music stuck in her mind and Judy thumbed the button to open his playlist without much thought. Nick's playlists were far more organized than hers ever were. He had categories for all sorts of things. A general favorites list, lists for patrols, steak outs, an office mix, and one list simply labeled "Safe For Carrots".

She smiled at that one, particularly after she saw the music within the list was practically hand picked from her library.

Other playlists had less direct names. Some were dates that Judy had no idea as to the significance, nor could she know without asking Nick. Others were just simple words, with whatever context also knowable to only one Nicholas P. Wilde.

A few swipes of her thumb later, and Judy had sorted his library by play count. One song stood out among all the others, the playcount triple that of its closest competitor. Judy raised an eyebrow. Nick loved music, this she knew. Patrols with Nick had a very set pattern to them. They would get their orders from Bogo in the morning. Judy would get in their car, plug in her music, Nick would sip at his coffee for about five minutes, and then, before the caffeine kicked in, but after he'd woken up a bit, the fight would begin in earnest.

It was an old, well choreographed fight at this point. Judy sometimes thought about buying a second memo pen so she could just prerecord the whole thing, they could play that, and then carry on with their day. Nick would tell her that the music she liked was bad, though usually in more colorful metaphors that involved him going deaf, bleeding from the ears, or dying of explosive turbo ear death cancer—twice—if he was feeling dramatic. Judy would counter that she was the senior officer, both in rank and experience. That if he didn't like the music, he should learn to drive. Or, if she was feeling slightly grouchy, that he liked badly recorded, anachronistic tripe. This would continue until they were inevitably no longer on speaking terms for a period of anywhere from five minutes to half-an-hour.

Really it just depended on the next song in Judy's shuffled playlist or if a call came in.

When they weren't fighting over the radio in the squad car, or where to go for lunch that day, he tended to listen to a playlist on his phone. Even off duty she often found him just listening to his music or browsing a musty records shop. He almost never bought anything, and when he did it tended to be from musicians she'd never heard of.

There was another name for it, of course, a much more offensive name: fox music. The term had been thrown around her dining room table more than once when Judy was young. Usually after one of her uncles had a few too many whiskey sours during or after dinner. Along with the term often came extended rants about foxes which went in a self-congratulatory circle of bigotry.

Judy could only feel sick with herself now, with the benefit of perspective, that she had never spoken against it, and on several instances had even found herself agreeing with it.

Her revelation had come a little over a week after Nick had joined the force. He'd been at his desk with one of his songs playing quietly over the speakers of his phone. Woolinski, one of Precinct One's remaining ram officers—and one of the grouchiest officers on the force—had told Nick to 'turn off the damned fox music'.

The response had been classic Nick, as Judy recalled. He'd simply offered Woolinski a saccharine smile, made the single laziest salute in the history of civilization, and proceeded to thoroughly ignore the ram's demand. Woolinski was irritated by that, but privately conceded sometime later that 'Fox has sand.'

It was that off handed remark how Judy even found out it had happened. She'd complained about it to Bogo, who had acknowledge that Saul Woolinski was a bigot, he was also one of the most experienced officers on the force. He'd done his best to ensure that Nick and Woolinski never worked together, but that didn't mean their paths never crossed.

Nick made a point of always playing 'his damned fox music' a little louder when he saw Woolinski wandering by.

It occurred to Judy in that moment that she had never bothered to ask Nick what he saw in that music. She wondered if it was just a fox thing, or perhaps something a little more complicated. Not that she had much reason to ask. She loved Gazelle, but just because it was the perfect music to dance to.

She knew foxes danced to the kind of music Nick liked, although he only rarely danced. Even then he never put a serious effort into it. So maybe it was for the message. That was how Judy justified it to herself when she plugged her headphones in, and started to listen. Or maybe she just wanted to hold onto that last scrap of normality.

The guitar that played was upbeat, played with a bright sound that juxtaposed with the singer's deep, belting tone. Yet Judy heard something else in the voice. A frail, world-weary sense that flowed under his words. It was a tone that seemed to fit with how she saw Nick from time to time when he thought nobody was looking.

While the song played she plucked his pocket notebook up and started flipping through it again.

The final verse caught her ear, though, and Judy found herself scrubbing the track back to hear it again.

 _Sittin' here resting my bones_

 _And this loneliness won't leave me alone_

 _Two thousand miles I roam_

 _Just to make this dock my home_

Judy found herself transfixed by the verse, though for what reason she didn't yet know. Without thinking she thumbed the track loop icon, letting the song play again and again as she stared at the ceiling.

It was nearly three am when the battery of Nick's phone died and Bogo walked into the room with a sullen look.


	6. Rocks and Shoals

Bogo had his sirens blaring on the drive to the hospital, but Judy barely heard them. The phone call from the hospital had been brief and to the point. Nick's vitals were failing, he had a fever, and Ramos and the rest of the medical team believed Nick only had hours remaining. The hospital's resident priest had been called and had been giving Nick his last rights while they spoke.

A consuming, yet dreamlike numbness had taken over Judy. Since the moment Bogo had roused her from bed with the dire news it had overtaken her. The surreal pain from earlier in the day subsumed by that empty feeling.

They arrived at the hospital in record time, and after finding a wheelchair for Judy, they were taken up to the ICU. No matter how many times she saw him like that Judy couldn't get used to it. Her Nick was always on alert, always thinking about something, be that a case, a con, or what verbal barb to send her way next. He wasn't supposed to be in that bed hooked up to more machines than she could count and breathing through a plastic tube.

It was different than earlier, though. Nick had looked peaceful earlier, either through whatever medications they had poured into him during surgery, or simply the shock of blood loss. Now he was shivering again, worse than when he had been laying on the concrete of the Plaza, blood pouring from fresh wounds. But the most unsettling thing to Judy was the way that his head lurched from left to right, his jaw moving up and down, biting into a tube of soft white material stuffed into his mouth like a bit.

Ramos was still there, watching his patient late into the night with a paper cup half-full of coffee seemingly glued to his paw. He talked to Bogo, though to Judy their conversation was indistinct noise in the background.

"Why's that thing in his mouth?" Judy wondered aloud. She hadn't been addressing Ramos in particular, though he assumed otherwise.

"It's to protect the tube giving him oxygen," Ramos answered, moving beside Judy's wheelchair. "Predators experiencing small seizures such as Nick currently is tend to bite through anything in their mouths."

Judy felt a stab of pain cut through the numbing armor she had placed around herself. Clenching her eyes shut, she willed the pain away, tucking it down where she could safely deal with it later. "Can you do anything about it?"

Ramos only shook his head. "We've done all we can. I'm sorry, Ms. Hopps, but there's just too much damage." Ramos put his paw on her shoulder in a manner meant to comfort. Judy hardly felt a thing. "I—"

The melodic ring of Judy's phone cut him off while startling Judy from her numbed state. Fumbling in her pocket, she managed to produce her phone and look at the caller ID. Her parents faces greeted her, and Judy felt a crack appear in her hastily built armor. With a breath and a swipe of her thumb, she answered the call.

"Judy, it's mom," her mother said, voice full of worry. "God, sweetheart, are you alright?"

"Hi Mom," Judy said automatically. "I'm okay," she lied.

"I tried calling you four times, you had me worried sick!"

"My phone never rang." It was an honest answer. Judy's phone hadn't rung once since she'd called her father. Logically she figured that reception had just been terrible in the hospital, the ICU in particular was buried so deep in the steel and concrete core of the hospital that it was a minor miracle her mother had gotten through at all. "Where are you?"

"Your father and I managed to catch the six o'clock train out of Bunnyburrow, we're in the lobby of Central Teaching Hospital now," her mother explained. "Where are you?"

Judy's eyes fell on Nick's form once again, and she felt the cracks in her armor spread. "I-I'm up in the ICU w-with Nick."

There was a pause on the other end of the line which stretched to the point that Judy almost thought the call had dropped. Then she heard her mother's voice again. "Judy… Is… Is he…?" Her mother left the words hanging in the air. Judy's silence was all her mother needed to hear. She could almost see her mother's shoulders and ears sag with the news before she steeled herself for what had to come next. "Come down here, Sweetie. Dad and I will be waiting by the blue elevators."

Judy nodded and muttered something along the lines of 'okay' before she tapped the end call icon on her phone. Sliding out of the wheelchair, Judy balanced on her good leg and got her crutches under her armpits. Bogo and Ramos walked with her, though Ramos stopped at the doors to the ICU. He left them directions to the blue elevators then turned back to Nick's room.

"Deep breath, Hopps," Bogo advised her when they finally arrived at the elevators and pressed the button to summon a lift.

"Yeah," Judy replied in a voice scarcely louder than a breath.

Waiting for the elevator to show up, Judy shifted her weight from her crutches onto her good leg. She could feel Bogo's eyes staring intently at her all the while. "Hopps...Judy."

She looked up at him.

"When this is…" He paused, the words catching in his throat. "I think you should take some time after this. Be with your family."

Judy felt the familiar pain stab her heart again. She knew what he meant, what he was assuming. She shook her head quickly, as though in defiance of fate itself. "No. That's not gonna be necessary. Nick...h-he's gonna be fine."

His hand came to rest on her shoulder, careful not to put too much pressure on her. "Judy, please, if you never take anything other advise from me then take this. Standing on the thin blue line is to risk your life. Every officer who wears the badge knows this. Today it will be Nick. Tomorrow it could be you, me, McHorn, Clawhauser, or anyone else we know." Bogo paused for a breath. Judy saw his eyes glisten with moisture that he refused to shed. It only served to make her pain worse. "It never gets any easier."

The sharp ding of a bell preceded the blue elevator doors opening. Bogo stepped in first and held the door open with his thick forearm while Judy hobbled into the large car. The walls were dark paneled wood looking like they hadn't been updated in forty years. Like most elevators there were two sets of buttons with one up high for larger animals and a second lower set for small animals. Elephant, giraffes and mice all had separate elevators that catered to their size and greater weights. Bogo pressed the button for the lobby, and Judy braced herself as the elevator lurched into motion.

Hopps and Bogo stood silently in the elevator. It was only there in the sterile blue-white light that Judy realized Bogo hadn't put his uniform on. He was dressed as casually as she'd ever seen him in khaki slacks and a black t-shirt tucked into the waistband. Judy almost made a comment on it, but was interrupted by the doors sliding open before them.

"Judy!" Her parents cried out in unison, and before she could process that they were there she found herself wrapped in a crushing embrace.

"We were so worried about you." Her mother kissed her cheeks and her forehead.

Her father's paws rubbed at her back as he held her tight. "Ya scared the daylights out of us, Jude." He pulled back, one paw on each of her shoulders. "Cripes, what happened to your leg?"

"It's just a scrape," she answered in the same monotone.

They didn't believe her, of course. Her mother looked horrified and squeezed her to the point Judy thought her ribs could be crushed. Yet perhaps out of deference to her discombobulated emotional state they had the courtesy to leave it be. "As long as you're alright. That's the only thing that matters."

Judy knew there would be more to it than that. Her parents, while deeply proud of her accomplishments, had nothing but worries about her work. Their reaction after she'd solved the Night Howler case had been almost comically apocalyptic when they saw her leg wrapped in gauze. That had been from a museum exhibit, not a bullet. For the moment though that fight seemed content to wait.

"Nick," her father said, much to Judy's surprise. "How is he?"

Judy felt herself freeze. The gunshots rang through her ears again. The smell of blood filled her nose, and Nick's frightened eyes staring up at her. Her parent's lips moved, but she couldn't hear them. She was barely aware of Bogo speaking, ushering them all into the elevator.

The paws of her parents were holding onto her for the ride up. Her mother's rubbed between her shoulder blades while her father had a firm grip around her waist, holding her protectively at his side. Bogo must have been talking still. She could feel her parents tense every few moments, the muffled noises they directed at her increasingly insistent.

Her father's face filled her vision. He placed his paws on her cheeks and called her name. It snapped her free of her daze, at least for a moment, and without thinking Judy simply fired off a quick "I'm alright".

"Jude, honey," her father said with sympathy in his eyes and tone.

"I'm fine," Judy insisted. Her tone brokered no argument, and her father reluctantly lets his paws slip down to his sides again.

The elevator doors opened with a chime allowing the passengers to exit after a few moments. Bogo led the way back to the ICU where Ramos was standing outside the door in conversation with a brown furred badger. The badger wore a stark black outfit contrasted only with a simple white collar around his neck. Tucked under his right armpit was what Judy assumed was a bible of some kind. Granted it could also be a cook book, fictional novel, or colorful stack of papers.

Ramos didn't smile. "I think you should go inside now."

How many times one could feel as though they had been run over, Judy didn't know. Yet every time came as a shock, and each one managed to crush her more than the previous. "What?" she asked with a feeble voice.

Ramos nodded grimly. "His fever is high and his respirations are poor. Medically, I have nothing left to try."

"S-so what does that mean?" Judy asked.

"It means that he's deteriorating quickly." Ramos crouched down until his knees rested against the cold tiles. There, he looked Judy in the eyes while his paws rested on her shoulders. "But that fox is a fighter. He wouldn't have made it off of the pavement if he wasn't. The only thing we've got left is to give him something to fight for."

The confusion must have been apparent of Judy's face. She stared at Ramos while Bogo and her parents stared back at her.

"We'll go with her." It was her mother who spoke first, and she craned her neck around to look up to the aging rabbit.

Ramos was quiet for a moment with a thoughtful look on his face. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath, then nodded once. "Alright."

A tall wolf dressed in black with a white collar around his neck stood at the edge of the bed. He read from a small pocket bible with his right paw on Nick's forehead. The sight put a weight into Judy's stomach, but was also profoundly amusing. She wasn't entirely sure, but Judy was fairly confident Nick was an atheist, or at least agnostic. Not that it was something they'd ever discussed, but some subjects were off limits, even between partners.

He leaned over the bed and kissed Nick's forehead, completing the ceremony. Gathering his things he turned and left the room. He smiled politely to Judy, her parents, Bogo, and Ramos, and excused himself to a patient in the oncology ward.

Judy found herself frozen at the open doors to the intensive care room. Breathing felt hard, like her chest was squeezed by a vice. She heard the erratic beeps of the cardiac monitors, the hiss of the oxygen pump, and most disconcertingly, the weak gasps from her partner. Someone, she wasn't sure if it was Bogo, her parents, or Ramos, pushed at her back, yet that force drove her forward on unsteady legs into the room. The door slid closed behind her.

"Do you remember when Grandma Betty was in a coma?" her mother asked.

"Uh, Bon, which time? Your mom was in a hospital more than some doctors."

Her mother made a sigh. "When Judy was four or five, Stu."

"A little." Judy interrupted the pair. This was the last place she wanted to hear their usual repartee.

"They read that old bunny her last rights four times," Bonnie recalled with a smile. "You held her paw and talked to her the whole time though. Every time they thought she was going to pass, she kept coming back." Bonne squeezed Judy's shoulder. "She said later that she could hear you."

Judy listened, but remained silent. Steeling herself, she hobbled over to the far side of Nick's bed where a large wooden chair had been set up. Judy saw that stepping blocks had been set up beside the chair. She didn't wonder who had put them there, but felt a vague sense of gratitude for whoever had.

With a bit of help from her father, she got onto the seat of the chair and got her first good look at Nick. From a distance it had been painful, up close it felt surreal.

Her paws found his, and she squeezed it gently. He didn't squeeze back. Judy lifted his paw, rubbing the cold, limp fingers between her palms.

"Nick? I… It's me. It's Carrots." Judy forced herself to smile even though he couldn't see it. She felt her parents behind her. The soft paw of her mother gently rubbing her right shoulder, her father's strong, calloused pads clutching firmly on her left. Like rocks they stood against the tides of pain that threatened to sweep her away. Her mouth opened, but no words came.

Her head fell lower and lower until her brow rested on the matted fur of Nick's shoulder. His scent was diminished, masked by blood and antiseptic. Her right paw stroked the matted fur on his head before she clutched at a tuft of it. Again she tried to speak, and again her words failed her. The only sound she could make: a piteous, shuddered cry. Even the shoal of her parents love couldn't fight the tides of pain that had beaten against her.

Judy squeezed his paw tightly, hoping against hope that it wasn't her imagination when he squeezed back.


	7. Hope

Judy held Nick's paw all night and long into the next day. Bogo left around six in the morning to get cleaned up and head to the station for the morning briefing. Ramos stayed a little longer, but eventually handed Nick's case to the ICU staff and took his leave for the day. He left his number with Judy's parents in case anything should happen or they needed to talk.

A nurse came in shortly after. He was a coyote who looked about the same height as Nick. He smiled politely and introduced himself as Bill, the nurse who would be looking after Nick for the day shift. Judy watched him move to their side of the bed where he rolled the covers back revealing Nick's crippled leg. He checked the dressings, recorded Nick's blood pressure, oxygen, making detailed notes on Nick's chart, then excused himself from the room as quickly as he'd arrived.

Edward Delgato arrived a little after ten, wearing a dark blue ZPD t-shirt and casual jeans. The canine wasn't wearing his badge, which surprised Judy. Usually the wolf never took it off unless he was working undercover.

"You look horrible," was the first comment that slipped Judy's lips.

Delgato chuckled. "Compared to you, Judy, I'm a goddamn spring chicken."

"Language, please," Bonnie Hopps chastised Delgato from where she stood behind Judy.

Delgato's eyebrow arched upwards, but after a moment he seemed to gather who the elder bunny was. "Sorry, Ma'am. I'm Ed Delgato, Z.P.D. SWAT."

"Well look at that, Bon, SWAT," Stu said with a laugh that was more nervous than amused. "I'm Stu Hopps, and this is my wife Bonnie."

"Nice to meet you both." Delgato's ears sagged as he shifted his gaze to Nick, and then Judy, in turn. "You sleep at all?"

Judy shook her head, which felt as though it'd been stuffed with cotton.. "No. You?"

"No." Delgato rubbed his palms against his eyes then let them slide up his brow and over his head. "You hear that, Wilde? You kept us up all night."

Rubbing the back of Nick's paw, Judy nodded along with the wolf. "Dumb fox."

' _You know you love me,_ 'Judy could almost hear him say it in response. Nick . She squeezed his paw again.

Judy felt another bolt of emotive pain lance through her chest; the twist of a knife she'd give anything to never feel again. The rabbit squeezed her eyes shut, forcing the risimg tide of back for a moment longer so she could speak with something approaching coherency. "So, you're not on duty today?"

"Bogo gave me the day off. Told me to clear my head." Ed scoffed, a bitter sounding noise. "I wish he hadn't." He grew quiet after a minute and stared blankly at the white washed walls of the ER.

Judy nodded. She knew what he meant, how could she not? "Thinking too much?"

Delgato nodded his head once while rolling the flesh of his lower lip between his teeth, eyes fixing on a blank spot ahead of him as he said:. "Fangmier texted me. He...In the Bullpen this morning… Bogo…h-he said…" The wolf's voice trailed off and he cleared his throat before letting out a low, rumbling growl of frustration.

Judy bristled reflexively, then squeezed Nick's paw as she quickly shook her head, saying with more surity than she felt: "Nick's a fighter. He'll pull through."

Nodding, Delgato's paw dipped into his left pocket where he produced an old wooden rosary. He rubbed the beads between his thumb and forefinger as he knelt down at the side of Nick's bed. Gently as he could, the wolf took Nick's right paw between his own larger paws. His eyes closed while his forehead pressed to Nick's cold knuckles as Delgato began to pray.

She had never known Delgato to be religious. Granted Judy never really cared to ask about it. It was, as far as she figured, to each their own. She heard her mother softly whispering a prayer behind her as well. A quick glance over her shoulder was all Judy needed to see her mother grasping at the small gold cross that hung around her neck.

Made of hair thin links of gold the chain was usually hidden by her mother's thick gray fur. It was always there, just under the surface, but one would never know it unless they knew where to look. Judy caught herself from reaching to the nape of her neck. For years she had worn her grandmother's cross after she'd died. It had been a comforting morning habit for her. One that helped her remember the old bunny with the funny smile who smelled like coffee and gave her candies as a child.

Judy had stopped wearing the cross when she'd joined the Police Academy. The cross would have been easily misplaced or swiped. She would never have forgiven herself if that would have happened, so Judy had given it to her younger sister for safe keeping.

Delgato moved which caught Judy's attention. His laid a paw atop Nick's head and sighed. He rose to his feet with an audible grunt as he tucked the rosary back into his pocket.

"Hang in there, Wilde." He patted Nick's shoulder gently. Judy noticed him wipe at the corner of his eye with his free paw. "Take care of yourself, Judy."

"You too, Ed."

Delgato smiled, then left, and by noon the other officers of Precinct One started to trickle in. Most only stayed for a few moments, just long enough to say a few words to Nick. Yet they all left gifts of flowers, cards, and balloons for the unconscious fox before returning to their beats. They decorated the Spartan taupe room with every color of the rainbow, but did little to improve the mood therein. Judy left Nick's side for only those precious few moments to hug her coworkers and exchange a few words, and even then only reluctantly.

Judy dared to hope that things were improving. By the time night had fallen Nick's vitals started to stabilize. The ICU nurses commented on how good he was breathing, though their language was cautious. Be it superstition, lingering concerns, or professional perspective, they never let Judy get her hopes up too much. But Judy allowed herself to hope. With Nick's paws starting to feel warm again, it was an easy sell.

Her parents tried to engage her. She knew they meant well, but Judy didn't want to talk. So her mother doted, her father fretted, and Judy sat quietly with Nick. A little past four the next day, Bogo returned with a black briefcase in his hand. He paused for a moment, surprised by the colorful array of flowers cards, and several stuffed animals that had been crammed into the small room. After a moment of adjustment he seemed to recall the purpose of his visit.

"How're you feeling, Hopps?"

She answered with a mere shrug.

"Jude, come on now," her father placed his paws on her shoulders with his thumbs lightly rubbing at the muscles under her shirt. "You gotta talk to us, sweetheart."

Bogo held out a hand with his palm open. "Mr. Hopps, it's fine. These things…they're difficult on all of us." He paused for a moment with his attention on Nick. Then, once his expression hardened to a gruff mask he spoke. "Could the two of you excuse us for a few minutes?"

Her parents exchanged a glance. Bonnie took Stu's paw in her own and gently pulled him towards the door. "Sure thing, Mr. Bogo. We'll just go to the cafeteria and get some lunch." She turned to Judy and smiled. "Would you like anything Judy?"

"I'm not hungry."

"We'll get you a salad."

Judy sighed. She didn't have the energy for a fight. With a sigh and a muttered "Fine." she resigned herself to the bland lunch to come.

Stu and Bonnie didn't make the same offer to Bogo, though he didn't care. He waited for the door to click shut then sat down on the foot of Nick's oversized bed. For a moment neither of them spoke. Instead they observed the small twitches of Nick's jaw as he struggled for breath through the tube down his throat.

"He looks better," Bogo said in a matter of fact tone.

Judy nodded. "He was coughing earlier. The nurse said it was a good sign."

Bogo nodded and placed his briefcase on his lap. He flipped the clasps open with his thumbs and pulled out a Manila folder about an inch thick. Bogo thumbed open the folder and pulled his glasses out of his breast pocket, but paused to look at Judy before putting them on. Whatever question that may have played at his lips never passed them, and Bogo put on his glasses to read from the file.

"Preliminary autopsy report has come in from the lab."

Judy's ears twitched. She looked over at the Chief, but kept her grip on Nick's paw. The act didn't go unnoticed by Bogo, who pointed it out to her.

"Hopps, Wilde will be fine without you holding his paw for five minutes."

"What does the report say?" Judy asked, subconsciously pulling Nick's paw to her chest.

Bogo frowned, regarding Judy with a borderline glare. He never appreciated being ignored or interrupted, but he let it slide given the circumstances. "The lab report shows large traces of Nip in the blood, but Aberdeen doesn't think that's what caused the hysteria."

"You _think_?I" Judy snapped. Bogo looked up from his papers, as surprised by Judy's tone as she seemed to be. "I… I'm sorry, Chief," she said sincerely. "That was-"

"Unprofessional, but understandable." Bogo said. "I know what this is like, Hopps. Believe me when I tell you that. But you need to keep control, if not for your sake than for t the mammals around you."

Judy's gaze drifted to Nick again. "Yes sir."

"Now then; while large and sustained doses of Nip are known to cause paranoia and other side effects, Aberdeen did not believe that it caused the psychosis that you and Wilde ran into.. So he ran a full toxicology screen, and when that showed none of the usual causes he expanded his search." Bogo looked down at Hopps, over the rim of his glasses. "It seems that your perpetrator's blood shows traces of _Midnicampum Holicithias_ as well."

"Night Howlers?" Judy's blood ran cold as Bogo nodded. A thousand questions flooded her mind all fighting for priority, and losing clarity in the process. Her mouth opened and closed over and over again like a fish laid out on dry land as she tried to re-set her brain.

 _This can't be happening again..._

Bogo pulled a laptop from his briefcase, along with a red folder stuffed to the brim with laptop he handed to her, before setting the file folder on the bed. "There are still a lot of critical details to this case that we are missing. We don't know if this is an isolated incident of one druggie looking to spice up her high, a contaminated batch of Nip that's being sold by accident, or if this is a new type of Nip being marketed on the streets."

"Have there been any other cases of hysteria?

"That we can tie to this case? No. But that's where your job comes in, Hopps."

Judy's brows knitted together. "My job, sir?"

"Officer Hopps." Bogo addressed her in a ceremonial tone. It made her ears perk and her back straighten like the day she graduated from the Academy. "You are to assemble a complete report on the Sliver Springs incident. I want you looking for patterns of behavior, similar arrests, anything that might prove useful." He motioned to the laptop and files he'd given her. "I want a preliminary report next week Friday. If you need any other resources you're to email Clawhauser. He'll see you get everything you need for this task.

"Next, the media is all over us for comment on what happened with the badger. I've given them fairly general comments until now, but I did have to release your and Wilde's names to them along with a basic update on your conditions."

Judy bristled, but restrained herself. "I shouldn't go on camera. I don't know if I can keep my mouth shut if someone goes after Nick."

Bogo chuckled, though for the buffalo the sound was closer to a growl. "Believe me, Hopps, you're never going in front of a news camera again if I have anything to say about it."

Heat crawled up her neck and settled into Judy's cheeks. "That was over a year ago, how long before everybody lets me off the hook for that one?"

"Don't know, don't care." Bogo answered, closing his briefcase and standing up. "I have to get going. Try to get some rest, Hopps. You're no good to anyone like this."

"I'll try, Chief."

The smallest of smiles tugged the corners of Bogo's mouth upwards. "And tell that lazy fox to get off his tail and get back to work. Zootopia isn't paying him to sleep all week."

Judy laughed a bit. "Hear that, Nick?" she asked, rubbing Nick's cool fingers between her palms. "Bogo's on to you. Time to get up, Slick."

With a simple nod of his head, Bogo left. Judy started to work immediately, but soon found her concentration wavering. The pages of the case files sat open on the foot of the bed as a base for Judy's hardly touched salad. She read a few pages, then lost interest and resumed her vigil over Nick while picking at food just enough to silence her parents.

Finally, after days of constant pressure Judy finally caved in and allowed her parents to take her to their hotel room for a shower and some rest. She had insisted she was perfectly fine, that she could have showered at the hospital or at least been back there quickly. They had been adamant, however, and had even roped the ICU nurses to their cause.

A Zuber driver was called who shuttled them quickly from the hospital to a decent hotel about twenty minutes away. Judy refused a wheelchair or any help to get from the car to the elevator. The ride up from the lobby to their room on the seventh floor was among the most uncomfortable of Judy's life. A palpable tension filled the elevator car, most coming off Judy in wave. The short walk to the hotel room was no better.

Showering was a more difficult task than Judy had expected. Her leg, wrapped in thick bandages as it was, couldn't be submerged in water or allowed to get wet until the stitches were out, ten days at the earliest. Reluctantly, Judy had her parents call down to the front desk for a shower chair, plastic wrap, and some tape. Once her leg was wrapped in several tight layers of plastic and the chair was placed Judy showered.

It felt good to be clean. More precisely it felt good to get the smell of the hospital out of her fur. Judy hadn't realized until she'd washed how pervasive the smell of antiseptics was. It clung to her like a pall, resisting her efforts to scrub it away with the industrial samples of body wash in the hotel shower. It took Judy several full body scrubbings to get the last of it off of her.

She wondered how long it would take Nick if… no _when_ he woke up.

After drying herself with the aid of the cheap hair dryer that was held together with duct tape and what she expected was some level of sorcery, Judy hobbled out and sat on the bed opposite of her parents. They looked at her with expectant expressions, and she tried her best to ignore them by checking her phone to see if there were any messages from the hospital.

Her heart sank when she found none.

"Feeling a little better now?" her father asked.

Judy rolled her shoulders in a half-hearted shrug. "Sure."

Her mother and father exchanged a worried glance with her mother's paws wringing together in her lap. Her father sighed and slipped off the edge of the bed. He was at her side a moment later, a paw resting gently on her shoulder as he sat beside her. She felt the anger that had been seething inside of her dim somewhat, and slowly she leaned over until her head gently pressed against his chest.

Judy listened to the strong beat of her father's heart as her mother sat on the opposite side of her. They sat with her, not speaking, not prying, just being there. It was not what she had expected, but it was what Judy needed. She didn't realize how tired she had been until that moment. With the gentle tone of her mother humming, Judy soon fell into a dreamless sleep.

The next morning Judy woke up tucked into bed with a pillow clutched tightly to her chest. She felt better to a degree, not fresh perhaps, but certainly better. Her parents were up before her with her father on the phone talking one of her brothers through a repair to one of their tractors while her mother sipped coffee from a styrofoam cup and read the newspaper. Judy yawned softly, then winced when she stretched her leg a bit too far generating a sharp reprimand from the damaged limb.

"You okay, hun?" Bonnie asked her daughter. Stu looked over as well, though held his tongue as he half-listened to the other line.

Judy nodded quickly. "Yeah, just stretched too far." She looked over at her father then shifted her attention to her mother with an eyebrow raised in curiosity.

Bonnie chucked. "Andy's trying to change the belt on the tractor."

Snorting in amusement, Judy shook her head. "Why's Andy doing it? Where's Brad, Craig, or Molly? They're they best gearheads in the family."

"Brad and Craig are busy, and Molly hasn't gotten back from college yet," Bonnie answered.

Judy mouthed an 'oh' and slowly slid out from under the heavily starched hotel covers. Dressing herself with a bit of help from her mother, who had slipped out earlier that morning to buy Judy some fresh sweat pants, the two women made their way downstairs for breakfast. Stu promise to join them shortly before slapping his forehead while Andy tried to figure out where a screwdriver was kept in the family shop.

Adjacent to the lobby the hotel's restaurant, called Bistro C for reasons existent on a level well beyond Judy's understanding, was unremarkable to say the least. Like many hotel restaurants it featured subpar breakfast selections cooked in bulk and set out in buffet style. Her mother fixed a plate for herself while Judy pondered the menu and checked her phone for messages.

A slew of emails filled her kMail app, most junk, but also a sizeable number of well wishes. She sighed and busied herself with deleting them. Once her mother returned she helped Judy get a plate of pancakes. They settled in to eat when Judy's phone rang. She stared at the caller ID in puzzlement, the number not recognizable to her.

"Who the heck?" Judy wondered allowed, showing her mother the phone.

Bonnie looked as puzzled as her daughter for a moment. "Answer it, what if it's the hospital?"

Judy's eyes grew wide as saucers and she fumbled over herself to accept the call. "H-hello?"

"Hello," the voice on the other end of the line was feminine, soft spoken, and had a social worker's empty cheer in tone. "Is this Officer Judy Hopps?"

"Speaking."

"Good morning, Miss Hopps, this is Liz over at Central Hospital."

Panic was the first thing to hit Judy and she clutched the phone with both paws. "What's happened? Is Nick okay?"

"Mr. Wilde opened his eyes a few minutes ago. He's awake."


	8. Stand By Me

A hazy sun was hidden behind patchy morning clouds, further obscured by the monolithic skyscrapers of Zootopia. Traces of light filtered through here or there painting the glass, steel, and stone in gentle pink tones. The streets, buildings, and sidewalks glistened with the evidence of early morning rain that most mammals had slept through.

Judy had never wished she was in her squad car more than the ride back to the hospital. She had flashed her badge to the Zuber driver that picked them up to persuade him to break several traffic laws. Her parents would have protested had they not been too busy clinging to each other or praying for some higher being to save them. Judy even found herself praying for a similar mercy the second or third time the driver jumped a hill.

They arrived to the hospital with minimal damage. Judy allowed herself to be put in a wheelchair only because her father could push and run far faster than crutches allowed her to travel. She didn't know what she expected when they reached the ICU. That Nick would be sat upright on a bed of pillows with a cup of coffee was unrealistic. But that didn't make it hurt any less when he looked as frail as he had when she'd left his side the night before.

Rising from the chair, Judy propped her crutches into the pits of her arms and hobbled into the room. The nurse tending to Nick glanced up from her chart offering a polite smile, which Judy returned. She was a wolf, old enough to be a grandmother with silvering fur, gentle blue eyes, and a smile that radiated warmth.

"Good morning, dear." She greeted them like they had come by for tea and cookies on a Sunday morning.A smoker's rasp made her voice almost purr which in a strange way seemed to enhance the natural warmth she spoke with. "You should really sit down. I'd hate to see you set yourself back because you pushed yourself too hard."

Stu Hopps barked out a laugh. "That's my Judy. Always pushin' herself."

"I…" Judy's words died on her tongue. Seeing Nick, still silent, weak, and infirmed… It wasn't her Nick. It wasn't the vibrant, charismatic, infuriating fox she knew. "They called me. S-said he was awake."

The nurse nodded, placing her chart on the edge of the bed. She pushed a thermometer into his ear and recorded the number it spat at her, then noted the fluids he'd taken in through IV and excreted through the catheter. "The charts say Officer Wilde opened his eyes for a couple of minutes around seven this morning. I can't tell you much though. I only started my shift an hour ago."

Judy felt her throat dry and her chest ache.

No, she thought. Don't think. "Was...was he able to communicate?"

The wolf shook her head. "He's been through a lot," she said while exchanging Nick's emptied IV bag for a full one. "Give him a few days and I think he'll be aware enough for us to really start communicating again."

Sagging visibly, Judy sighed. Her parents patted her back, rubbed her shoulders, and whispered soothing things into her drooped ears, but it did little to ease the now familiar ache she felt. The hours whittled away slowly until late that evening when Nick showed signs of stirring once again.

By then Judy was no longer the only mammal present at his bedside. Not including her parents half of the ZPD had shown up to the ICU, many bearing even more cards, bouquets of flowers, or stuffed animals for their friend. Clawhauser was holding court in the center of the room recalling a story from before Judy worked at the ZPD and when Ben had been made to go on patrols.

The cheetah told the story of how the Zootopia Fire Department had been called to a home to help a mammal trapped in his bathroom. Expecting a broken hip, cardiac issues, or other trauma, the ZFD responded immediately only to find the house locked when they got there with the victim calling out for help from inside. Procedure required them to call the ZPD when forcing entry on a house, which was where Clawhauser and his then partner had arrived in their patrol cruiser.

A few moments and a healthy application of leverage later, Clawhauser and the rescue team entered the house to find their mammal. He was a middle aged goat, squatting in his bathtub where, according to Clawhauser, the victim had been 'making sweet love to Mrs. Koehler'.

The gathered officers made no effort to conceal their fits of laughter, Judy and Bogo included, while Clawhauser assured them that the scene had remained 'totally professional'. All well not forgetting to mention the fetching centerfold that had been taped to the wall of the bathtub while Mr. Koehler worked through his needs.

"So Jerry tells me to get in there," Clawhauser says with mirth sparkling in his eyes. "And the first thing that comes out of my mouth is 'Uh, sir, have you tried...you know, thinking of something else?'"

"Like his wife?" Fangmire suggested through a laugh.

Clawhauser's mirthful laugh filled the room. "Exactly!"

Judy bit her tongue harder than she had in years to avoid from laughing. She could almost feel her mother's frown behind her along with her father's equally embarrassed chuckling. Still, Judy certainly found humor in Clawhauser's story as well.

"So this poor slob is stuck and the...equipment isn't coming out. One of the ZFD guys says 'well, let's break out the Jaws' to scare him."

"Come on, man, that's just mean!" Delgato interjected with a toothy grin. "The ZFD guys are dicks."

A strange rumble made Judy's ear's perk. She struggled to identify the sound that wasn't unlike what she expected a horse choking on a fish would sound like. It took her a few seconds to realize the sound was coming from Chief Bogo, and nearly a minute more to realize he was trying to conceal a laugh.

Oblivious to Judy's moment of reality shattering realization, Clawhauser continued his story. "So they get out a hacksaw, but forget to get a wet towel to control the heat from cutting metal. Then Mrs. Kohler comes home, and wouldn't you know it the problem is solved without our help!"

"How was she lookin?"

Clawhauser paused for a moment before sheepishly answering. "Well...the faucet wasn't looking so bad anymore."

A chorus of laughter erupted from the gathered officers, of which Judy counted herself a member. It helped them all forget, if even for a moment, what the past few days had brought. It felt normal, routine, more like the bullpen instead of the cramped ICU.

Through the whole story Judy hand held Nick's paw in her own. Her smaller fingers slipped between his own while her opposite paw had come to rest on Nick's forearm. She had hardly given thought to the placement at first, and over the course of time it had simply grown to feel natural to her. Warmth had yet to return to Nick's fingers, and Judy regularly caught herself rubbing the digits between her palms.

Nick's fingers were compliant, and she hoped that it provided him some manner of comfort. It had certainly comforted her to talk to him or to put his phone on his pillow and let his favorite music play on a low volume. Some mammals said that such acts were noticed, and the nurses had reminded her and the other officers that Nick could probably hear them. Judy hoped to ask Nick if, no, when he recovered.

The song playing on Nick's phone was another one from his favorites playlist. A single voice, deep, but feminine. The singer carried a weariness to her voice much like Nick did. She was alone in the track, with a muted guitar that radiated warmth from the gentle plucks of the strings. Judy recognized the song of course. It was a cover of Stand By Me, though the specific artist she did not know. The original version was a favorite of her mother's, and when Judy had bothered to glance she'd seen her mother had her eyes closed as she discretely swayed to the cover.

Judy had found much of the list surprisingly melancholic. The songs were predominantly fox music Nick loved and she reviled, though her opinion had softened over the past few days from disinterest to a growing respect. Perhaps it was the better recording quality she found in some of them, or the repeated listening of his favorite songs that allowed her to pick out the subtleties in the music she hadn't noticed the first time. Or perhaps they just reminded her of days not too far behind them, sitting in the car and arguing over music in their well choreographed arguments.

Officers continued to share stories of the beat along with hearty laughs while they waited. Around one in the afternoon Bogo's cell phone rang. His warm mood soured quickly and he left the room without a word or courtesy. Judy didn't think much of it, after all, Bogo tended to leave meetings early when he had to. In all likelihood, Judy figured, he probably had a call from city hall that required his immediate attention.

A different nurse came in shortly after Nick's IV bag was drained. The persistent beeping of the machines must have alerted her to the issue as Judy hadn't noticed herself until that point. She hooked up a fresh bag then proceeded to take Nick's vitals and check him over. Something must have caught her attention though, or she had a sense that a change had happened as her expression shifted from pleasant, if bored, to anxious.

"Nick? Nick, wake up." the nurse patted Nick's shoulder with her paw. "Nick, open your eyes."

Chairs scraped and paws clattered across the linoleum floor as the gathered officers rushed to crowd around the bed. Wolford got a sharp elbow in the gut when he crowded Judy a bit too much. The room seemed to grow silent, only the beeps, whirs, and hums of the machinery filling the void. Judy didn't dare breath when she felt Nick's paw twitch in her own.

Judy watched with the nurse and her coworkers looking for even the smallest signs. Nice's face remained impassive, the steady beep of the monitors ticking in her ears like a metronome. Her heart leapt for joy when his brows pinched together and ever so slowly his eyes drew open. Judy didn't realize she'd started to cry until her mother's thumb wiped at her cheek.

"Nick, my name is Lisa," the nurse said with a genuine smile on her lips. "You're in Central Teaching Hospital."

A pained expression came over Nick accompanied by a gagging sound. The nurse, Lisa, was quick to put her paw on his shoulder. "Don't try to talk, you've got a breathing tube down your throat right now. If you do good we might be able to take that out in a day or two. Blink twice if you understand."

Nick blinked twice, though after the second time he seemed to have trouble keeping his eyes open. His unfocused eyes drifted aimlessly around the room at the faces of his coworkers. If he saw their tears or heard their greetings he didn't seem to acknowledge them, or couldn't even if he had wanted to. Then his eyes settled on her where they seemed to focus, however briefly.

"Nick," she spoke his name so quietly she barely realized she'd said it. So many things she had wanted to say to him, yet she couldn't remember a single one. All she could do was whimper his name with fresh tears pooling in her eyes. His paw twitched in her hand in a manner that Judy assumed to be an attempt to provide a reassuring squeeze. Wiping her palm over her eyes, Judy saw Nick's mouth twitch upwards as though to smile. The effort seemed to exhaust him quickly, though, and Nick's eyes soon fell closed again, his face growing slack.

Judy lightly shook his shoulder. "Nick? Nick?"

Her tone must have betrayed her worry as the nurse was quick to reassure her. "He's just resting, don't worry."

Biting her lip, Judy forced a nod. Admid the sea of warmth and affection that flowed through her by her parents and fellow officers, it was hard not to feel alone. Lisa noticed and moved around the bed, getly brushing past the murmuring officers so she could kneel in front of Judy. She placed her paws Judy's shoulders and waited for the rabbit to look her in the eye.

"There's going to be a lot of days like this. A lot of days worse too. But you have to be strong and patient with him."

Judy nodded. "I know."

Lisa smiled then leaned forward to hug Judy. She pulled away after a few moments and smiled once more. "I'll go get the doctor. He'll want to look Mr. Wilde over. Like I said: if we're lucky we can take that breathing tube out as early as tomorrow."

Getting up quickly Lisa disappeared out of Nick's room towards the nursing station in the center of the ICU. The officers celebrated behind her with tears, hugs, and laughter. Judy felt their sense of elation, but also more of the pain that had haunted her since the moment she saw Nick fall. Now that he was awake, that he'd seen her, how could she face him when it had been her fault in the first place?

Keeping those thoughts to herself, Judy allowed herself to join in the embraces of her fellow officers. Clawhauser had picked her up and carried her around the room like a child's doll for longer than Judy liked. Other officers passed her around until finally she got put back down by a sympathetic Wolford.

A little more than an hour later Dr. Ramos knocked on the glass door. He smiled to Judy and promptly saw to checking over Nick. He pulled back the sheets to look at Nick's abdomen, though the angle he held them at concealed the visual from the gathered ZPD officers, then checked the wound in Nick's leg, which Judy and a few others got a fair look at. Her father promptly excused himself out of the room with her mother in tow. Judy hoped he made it to a bathroom before he retched all over the floor.

With a bit more prompting, Nick was able to open his eyes again. This time he stayed awake a little longer. Judy held on to Nick's paw all the while Ramos conducted his checks. Ramos gently lifted Nick's paw off the bed and slid a pad of paper under it. He helped Nick grasp onto a cheap plastic pen then lightly moved the fox's paw to encourage him to write. Nick's paw remained still.

"Nick, you've got some paper there," Ramos said with a gentle tone. "Can you tell me how you're feeling?"

Nick's paw was still for a while, but with a slight prodding from Ramos, Nick began to write. Judy chewed on her lower lip nervously while she waited. Ramos too waited, then, when Nick grew tired and the pen slipped from his fingers, Ramos lifted up the paper and chucked. He passed the paper to Judy and she grasped it impatiently and began to read. She felt a genuine smile pull at her lips along with fresh tears burning at her eyes.

"Judy?" Clawhauser asked after a moment. "What's it say?"

Laughter, pure euphoric laughter filled the room. "Ow!" she said. "He said ow!"

Judy tore off the slip of paper and passed it around the cramped room.

"Wilde can feel? News to us!" Grizzoli said with a broad grin on his muzzle.

Fangmire chuckled while his right arm slipped around Delgato's shoulders. The white wolf was smiling, but held his face in one paw as he wept openly. "We got your back, Wilde.

Ramos smiled, but quickly waves a paw to quiet down the raucous officers. A moment later he produced a dull needle and proceeded to shoo the officer out of the room. Judy too was forced out, then the blinds were closed to give Ramos and Nick some privacy.

What most of the gathered officers had assumed would only take a few minutes stretched into a far longer wait. At ten minutes, most were still casually chattering with excitement and relief. By fourty five minutes later all were worried and waiting in an impatient silence. They swarmed Ramos when he finally emerged with that familiar neutral mask firmly affixed to his face. All the officers stood there, waiting with baited breath to tell them what happened. Ramos returned each and every look with one of his own that bore a powerful presence, yet revealed nothing. The silence made all of them nervous, though none more so than Judy, who limped towards him with the aid of her crutches.

"Well?"

Ramos cleared his throat as though to stall for a moment longer before he spoke. When he did his tone was flat, professional, and matter-of-fact in his delivery. "Mr. Wilde is doing well, overall. The entry and exit wounds seem to be healing and I have observed no sign of infection."

"That's good, right?" Wolford spoke up from where he stood half hidden behind Grizzoli.

"Yes," Ramos nodded, though he seemed less than happy. "However… Well, Mr. Wilde currently has no feeling or mobility below his waist.

The walls felt like they were crumbling down around the gathered officers. More than one of whom seemed to stop breathing for a few moments after the news hit them. Judy felt her mouth grow dry and the hall start to spin around her. Her trembling legs gave away forcing her parents to scramble to catch her. Ramos was down on his knees in an instant, his large paws holding her up by the pits of her arms.

"He...he can't.." Judy mumbled over and over, the very idea of Nick being paralyzed unthinkable to her.

"There is a chance the paralysis is caused by swelling in his spinal cord. If that's the case then it could be temporary and may go away with time and steroid treatments to reduce the inflammation."

"So why aren't you doing that?" Asked an indignant Fangmeier.

Ramos was unfazed by the outburst. Like most doctors he'd delivered far worse news to patients and their families before. "Steroids would weaken his immune system. If we use steroids on Mr. Wilde now we could end up killing him."

It was like being punched in the gut, Judy thought. She did her best to steel herself and regain her balance on her crutches. "Have you told him?"

"I have."

"C...can I see him?"

A pause preceded Ramos' answer. "I think that would be for the best. I'll get him some more medicine for the pain. If you have questions I'll answer them when I get back."

Judy nodded and proceeded into the room. Her parents and the rest of the ZPD officers held back for a few moments before they filtered in behind her. The lights had been dimmed to their lowest setting, and for a moment Judy thought Nick was sleeping. Then she heard his breaths, sharp, quick, and pained. She worked her way around the bed to the guest chair and climbed up into it.

Nick's eyes caught her own, and he quickly attempted a smile. It didn't fool Judy or any of the other officers in the room. Not when tears had already drawn dark lines down his cheeks.

Judy took his paw again, rubbing the cold fingers between her palms. Delgato stepped to the other side of the bed where he took Nick's opposite paw. Clawhauser moved up beside the wolf, his heavy paw resting gently on Nick's shoulder while his body twitched with silent cries. One by one the other officers moved in around the bed; a thin blue line around their brother to shield and share in his pain.


	9. Pieces

Nick's breathing tube was removed two days after he'd woken up. An abundance of caution had been the motivator for Ramos in keeping it in a day longer than expected. Judy had been made to leave the room while the tube was pulled, although the glass wall did little to mute the gagging that she could hear in painful clarity.

Judy hadn't heard his first words; she had been taken to a different room to get her leg checked out. To her delight the stitches had been removed and she was downgraded from crutches to a mere cane with very strict instructions against running, jumping, or walking more than needed. According to her father Nick had muttered something incomprehensible and had sounded 'like he'd just swallowed a chain smoking toad'.

While Nick hadn't been able to talk, he still proved able to communicate. Judy had assumed Nick had been insane when he'd flapped his paws in random seeming patterns while they were sneaking into Cliffside Hospital. She had only come to learn later that Nick was fluent, if rusty, in sign language. According to her impressed father, Nick had managed to communicate to a nurse also fluent in sign the exact pain he was feeling and where so he could be given the proper help.

She'd asked him where he'd learned sign, and in typical Nick fashion he'd never quite answered her. It was just another in a long list of games he played with her, feeding the rabbit just enough clues to keep her guessing but never quite offering answers. Judy had to admit there was a certain maddening fun to his antics, she did love a good puzzle after all, but at the same time it did drive her insane.

It had been a disappointment to her to see him asleep again, but not a surprise with how much morphine they were pushing into his veins. That said it had been a joy to see him breathing without a tube down his throat, yes, but still a disappointment to miss the moment. Judy had found herself living in far too many of those disappointing moments of late.

While Nick slept Judy busied herself with the case files Bogo had left her. Before long her legal pad was half full of observations, drug busts, and notations. Her pen scratched out every detail she thought relevant, matching case records to evidence files in her laptop for later analysis.

Starting three months ago was a seemingly random case of a mammal in Sahara Square becoming aggressive and violent. Officers on the scene had made a point that the camel had not displayed signs of Nighthowler induced savagery and was at least coherent enough to communicate with them. He had been arrested and put in the drunk tank to sober up. Tests performed afterwards had shown heavy doses of Nip in his system and charges were levied accordingly.

A month later another case had been called in with eerily similar circumstances. This time the mammal in question was a lioness. Judy wondered why no charges had been filed against her; at least until she discovered that the girl had been the daughter of a semi-prominent city councilwoman. No doubt Nick would have a snide comment or two about that when she told him.

There were more cases, but none seemed to bear any connection aside from Nip and agitated mammals. A bad batch of Nip was something that happened from time to time. But that usually correlated with an uptick in mammals visiting urgent care clinics. Correlation, however, was not causation, and there was a difference between thinking and knowing. Judy rubbed her eyes and set the file aside.

"There's gotta be something," she mumbled. With a sigh she leaned back in her chair and let her gaze drift to the somnolent fox. A sad smile twitched at the corners of her mouth. "Wake up, partner, I could use your help about now."

A knock on the door drew her attention away from Nick. Delgato waved to Judy as he walked in. "Hey Hopps, how's it going?" He paused for a moment to look around the small room. "Your parents leave?"

"Hey Ed. Yeah, they went to get some sleep." Judy's ears drooped when she looked at Nick. "Nick hasn't woken up since they pulled the tube."

The wolf nodded and took a seat next to the bunny. He smirked wickedly and carefully nudged Nick's shoulder. "Wake up, Wilde, your girlfriend is getting worried."

Heat rushed into Judy's cheeks so fast Judy was sure that it was visible through her fur. "He's not my boyfriend!"

Getting the reaction he'd wanted, Delgato burst out laughing. "Cripes, Hopps, your face!"

"Just wait till I can walk again you overgrown mutt," she crossed her arms and scowled at him."

Delgato started to reply, but his words were lost to a soft gasp. Judy was confused at first, then she looked to Nick where she saw those beautiful green eyes half open. He was glancing around the room, confused and slow, but awake.

"Nick? Oh my God, Nick!" Judy leaned over, gently stroking Nick's cheek with her hand. He shifted at the touch and Judy's heart skipped a beat. A grin spread across her face from ear to ear when Nick's eyes found her.

His lips moved making barely more than a breath for sound. Judy's ears perked yet despite her excellent hearing she had not been able to make out a word of it. She leaned closer, getting her ear near to his muzzle. "I couldn't hear you, Nick."

"I'll go grab a nurse," Delgato said, darting out of the room quick as his feet could carry him.

Nick kept trying to speak. All that Judy ever could make out was bits of vowels or sharp coughs. Delgato came in a moment later with a nurse in tow. She held a large paper cup capped with a plastic top and a straw. Judy reluctantly moved away from Nick so the nurse could elevate the head of the bed and guide the straw to his parched lips.

"Mr. Wilde, I want you to take a couple little sips for me," the nurse said in a warm, but strong voice. "Not too fast now."

He complied, drawing a bit of water from the straw. No sooner did he swallow it than he cringed and almost looked to be resisting the water at first. Judy tried not to flinch. She could only imagine the discomfort he was feeling. She remembered having her tonsils removed when she was younger. Judy thought she'd been drinking razor blades when she'd finally been given some water to drink.

Nick persevered through the pain, and after a few swallows he sank back into the pillow. He panted and coughed again, an action that made him cringe visibly.

"How's your pain on a scale of one to ten?" The nurse asked

"Seven," Nick whispered.

Judy didn't recognize the voice she heard. It was quiet, scratchy, and tense with pain. Of the carefree relaxed tones she'd come to know there was no trace. She placed her paws in his. "Squeeze my paw, Nick."

He complied, and Judy braced herself for what she expected to be a paw crushing grip. His paw barely twitched. She felt his fingers curl around hers, but he couldn't muster enough strength to get a good grip on her.

"That's good, Nick," Judy said, rubbing his shoulder with her free paw. She tried to smile, but Nick only needed one look at her to realize the truth.

The nurse asked him questions, which Nick gave mumbled answers to. Every few minutes he seemed to nod off again, only to be drawn back to consciousness with a gentle shake or a quick snap of his name. Once satisfied, the nurse left to retrieve more painkillers.

"What'd I miss?" Nick asked after several moments of silence.

The question, while so typically Nick in delivery still managed to catch Judy and Delgato off guard. Delgato looked at Judy, and she looked right back at him while biting her lip. When it was clear Delgato wasn't going to be the first to say anything, Judy turned back to Nick and cleared her throat.

"Well, um, not a whole lot, I guess." She made a soft laugh. "Bogo told you to stop sleeping in."

The fox smiled politely. "Gotta take my vacation sometime, right fluff?" He croaked out.

"Nick," Delgato cut in, scooting closer to the side of the bed. "What...what do you remember?"

Judy glared daggers at the wolf while Nick's eyes closed. His jaw seemed to tense behind tightly pressed lips. When he opened his eyes his expression was blank. "Responded to a call. Badger lady…" Nick groaned, his paw covering his side. "She attacked Carrots. Tried to stop her."

"You did, Nick, you did." Judy held his paw close. "You saved my life."

He smiled up to her. This time she felt something genuine in the gesture. His voice grew quieter when he spoke. "That's… what we do….at..." Nick coughed once and grimaced. "At…" His coughing resumed, worse than before.

"At the ZPD," Judy finished the thought while glancing to Delgato.

Again and again Nick coughed. Judy put a hand on his shoulder, trying to steady him while Delgato slipped his arm behind Nick's head. He propped his friend up then brought the straw to his lips. Again and again Nick tried to drink, only for his coughs to interrupt him each time. It was then Judy saw blood staining his hospital gown.

"Oh god!" Judy nearly lunged for the call button.

Delgato laid Nick back down and put his paw over the spot of red. It was only moments before the ICU nurses flooded the room, several still pulling on their gloves. They pushed Delgato and Judy aside while they tore away the gown. A collective sense of relief filled the medical staff, though Judy and Delgato were left standing in terror for a moment longer.

"It's alright," the lead nurse assured ethem. "He's just popped a stitch. Nothing to worry about."

"That was a Hell of a cough," Delgato said, his paw flexing anxiously.

"S-sorry," Nick apologized through the pained gasps.

After they'd stemmed the trickle of blood, the nurses administered Nick a hefty dose of painkillers. They replaced the popped stitch with a fresh one, a pain Nick endured with little more than a flinch of discomfort. They checked his vitals, then quietly slipped out of the room again, letting Judy and Delgato settle back in by their friend.

"You're gonna be the end of me you dumb fox," Judy said,

Nick offered a hollow smirk. "Would you… love me any...other way?"

Delgato tried to cover up a laugh while Judy glared at him.

"You okay?" Nick asked, his paw reaching out for her. He grasped at the air twice before Judy took his paw between her own.

"I'm okay, Nick. Everybody is okay."

"Sorry…"

"What are you sorry about, Wilde?" Delgato asked. "You did nothing wrong."

"Made… You worry…" Nick's voice trailed off, the narcotics taking their toll on his limited stamina. "Tried to… To stop her…"

"It's okay, Nick," Judy assured him. "You were a hero."

Delgato nodded as well, patting Nick's shoulder. "The whole ZPD's behind you, Wilde."

Again Nick coughed. Judy and Delgato braced for another fit but were relieved when it seemed to subside after only one. The heavy breaths from Nick were the only sound in the room for a time.

"Ow…" He wheezed.

"You shouldn't do that, it hurts." Delgato so helpfully pointed out.

Despite everything, Nick managed a half-smile. "Up...yours…"

Smirking as well, the wolf leaned on a hip and winked. "Sorry, Wilde, my boyfriend's the jealous type."

Nick chuckled, his free paw drifting to his stomach. "Yeah...well tell...tell Dan" Nick coughed. "Ah...he knows."

Delgato laughed and nodded, rubbing Nick's shoulder again. "I'll let him know."

"Judy! Judy!" Bonnie Hopps rushed into the room trailed by Stu with a frantic look in her eyes.

"Mom?" Judy made a confused tilt of her head, her ears perking up again. "What's the matter? I thought you and dad went to get some rest."

"Your father and I stopped to get something to eat first and maybe pick up some extra shirts when we saw this." Dipping a paw into her beige purse, Mrs. Hopps produced a folded tabloid. She unfolded it and showed the cover to Judy and Delgato with Nick managing to keep his eyes open and take a look as well.

The cover was Nick's face from his hospital bed. Bold white letters outlined in black asked the question "Justice for who?" In all caps.

A horrified shock stunned everyone into silence. Bonnie stopped abruptly when she noticed that Nick was awake and staring square at his photo. All eyes turned to him unsure of what to say. They didn't need to wait long for Nick to break the silence.

"Got my good side, right?"

He was smiling. It threw Judy for a loop. She was horrified, enraged, confused. How could he take it all so easily when his privacy had been violated like that? Then Judy realized two things at almost the same moment. The focus of her borderline apoplectic feeling wasn't at the paper, the photographer, or the hospital for their lack of security. No, what blame there was landed squarely on her own shoulders. Second was Nick's smile. It looked carefree and relaxed, but it was only in his lips. The smile didn't crimp the corners of his eyes or bring his ears up. It was forced, like that of a social worker or salesman.

Judy pushed aside her worries, at least for a few minutes. "Ed, call Bogo. He needs to know."

"I'd be surprised if he doesn't know already," Delgato answered, pulling his phone from his pocket. "Be right back."

An eerie quiet settled over the room after the doors closed. Judy looked to Nick who simply closed his eyes and laid his head back on the pillow.

"Nick?" She placed a paw on his forearm. "Are you—"

"M'good," he answered quickly. "Just real tired, Carrots."

Her ears sagged along with her shoulders, but Judy nodded. "It's okay, Nick. Just get some sleep then.

An hour later Wolford and Fangmeyer were standing guard outside of Nick's door. THe fox was fast asleep when Bogo arrived a couple hours later with two other mammals in suits following close behind him. One was a jaguar that Judy recognized as Thomas Cortez, the ZPD's chief legal counsel. The other was a spectacled rabbit dressed in a blue suit tailored to his lanky frame. He looked to be almost her grandfather's age, though was far more spry in appearance. Every officer in the room could feel the anger rolling off Bogo in waves.

"All of you come with me." Bogo's tone made clear that it was anything but a request.

The gathered officers exchanged looks of concern amongst one another. They followed him out of the room to a quiet area in the hall.

"This is Mr. Beck," Bogo motioned towards the rabbit at his side. "He serves as the hospital's chief legal counsel."

"How the Hell did this happen?" Judy demanded, barely containing her voice.

Bogo frowned. "Two days ago I got a tip about a picture from a photographer friend of mine. I-"

"You've known about this for two days and told us nothing?" Fangmeyer growled.

He was silenced by a cold glare from the buffalo. Bogo folded his arms across his chest and exhaled sharply before he spoke. "It took me a day to confirm there was a picture and another day to find out who had it. Obviously by then it was too late to get a court order on the tabloid."

"Who took the picture? How'd they get into the ICU?" Judy asked.

"I couldn't get a name, but I know it's a papparatzi." Bogo pulled out a thin manilla folder no larger than the one Judy had been given for the Otterton case her first week on the job.

Papparatzi were a chronic headache for the ZPD. Many were small rodents armed with all manner of specialized cameras. They snuck into homes, cars, and buildings all in search of a perfectly compromising shot that could be sold to the highest bidder. Sometimes they called the police after celebrities accosted them. The men and women of the ZPD rarely felt sorry for the snooping rodents, but they were still mammals and thus entitled to the same protections.

The old rabbit, Mr. Beck, stepped forward. "On behalf of the hospital I want to say we are very sorry about all this."

"We're not the ones you need to apologize to," Judy growled.

"Stand down, Hopps, he's on our side." Bogo growled. "We're initiating a full investigation with the hospital's cooperation. Hopps, Delgato, Fangmeyer, you're assigned to be security. No mammal gets in that room without going past one of you first. Wolford, Grizzoli, work your contacts, get me some leads on a name. I'll make sure the papers are in order. You should also know that video of the shooting is on ZooTube. Every time we get one taken down two more are put up."

Judy felt her hackles rise, a seething, boiling, consuming fury building in her gut. Yet she held her tongue. The anger radiating from her must have been palpable, Delgato put a paw on her shoulder as though to reassure her. It did little good, and only made her more aware of her disgust.

Her partner, her best friend, had been shot. She had been shot. Nick could have died, and was paralyzed likely for life. It wasn't reality TV to be watched for the perverse entertainment of the unthinking masses. It wasn't glorious, heroic, or exciting. It was one mammals last moments of life, and a violent end to what should have been a simple call.

She still heard the gurgling at night. The wet bubbling noise that came from the gaping wounds in his gut. In her paws she felt the blood seeping through her fingers. When Judy woke with a kick and a start she always checked to see if the blood was out of her fur. And then there was Nick's face, ashen, dull-eyed with his jaw hanging slack his teeth glistened in the light of the sun.. He looked like death was picking over his body as he laid in the street. With his jaw hanging slack his teeth glistened in the light of the sun.

In her nightmares the paramedics still swarmed over him. A laryngoscope was put down his throat and a tube put in to feed Nick precious oxygen, but it was already too late. Death had claimed him, like it had claimed the badger they had been sent to deal with. In her nightmares she never got to say goodbye. In her nightmares she heard those terrible shots again and again.

And now mammals were watching that nightmare for their perverse curiosity.

Things seemed to move quickly after that, and Judy spent it in a daze. Bogo and the lawyers had gone in to wake Nick up. They had spent nearly an hour with the white blinds of the intensive care unit drawn shut for privacy. When they emerged again Bogo left with the lawyers for more rounds of paperwork, Delgato slipped into Nick's room for a few moments while Fangmeyer took up a post outside.

Judy spoke with her parents for almost half an hour, then saw them off to their hotel. She felt her shoulders sag after they had climbed into the Zuber car and vanished down the streets. It was like a bridle of cast lead was set over her shoulders. Balancing on her crutches, Judy made her way upstairs, past Fangmeyer and into Nick's room.

The back of the bed was propped up allowing Nick into a sort of reclined sitting position. Delgato had pulled up a chair next to the bed with his back facing the door. The chair opposite of him was reserved for Judy. Nick held his phone sideways in his paws, waiting for something as he watched a video. Judy couldn't see what he was watching. His attention so focused on the screen that he hadn't heard her enter the room. Delgato did, though, and his ears splayed out with a worrisome frown on his lips.

Judy worked her way around the bed to her seat and climbed up with some effort. Upon getting a look at the screen she felt faint. The video was of Silver Spring plaza, and Judy recognized the badger standing in the decorative fountain holding her head under the water. Nick, a blur of blue and red, was on the badger's back, putting a foot into the back of her knee to break her stance and get her off of Judy.

"Nick." Judy put a paw on his wrist. "You shouldn't watch this."

He ignored her, eyes fixated on the screen. She looked to Delgato for support, but found that he too was transfixed by the shaky video. Why, she wondered, and then she heard Nick shout his warning.

Crack came the report of the pistol, Judy saw herself dropping backwards. Nick had screamed her name. She didn't remember him saying a word. Crack and mammals fled in all directions. Crack and glass shattered. The mammal wielding the camera docked for cover, the video becoming a blur of color as they hid. Crack and snap, another bullet firing wildly. It all happened so much faster than she remembered.

Poking their head up from behind the relative safety of a car, the camera's operator found Nick struggling for control of the gun with the badger. Crack reported the pistol, the shot that was still buried in Nick's thigh. The next three shots came in quick succession, the badger had been trying to pull away from Nick, her gun caught on the hem of his vest. A scream of horror flooded the audio as the mammal holding the camera caught all three shots that hit Nick. There was a red mist that exploded from his back when the first two shots went through his body, accompanied by shredded fabric and fur. The badger pulled her gun free, and Nick started to double over, but a final shot hit his kevlar, knocking him flat on his back.

Judy charged, then fell when a bullet grazed her leg. The video cut there with the badger leveling her gun at Judy's head, the camera's operator cursing and scrambling for better cover. Nick stared at the screen, his eyes glassy with the corners of his lips turned down. Judy waited for a while, then gently took the phone from his paws, placing it down beside him.

Nick's right paw moved, touching the mound of blankets where his leg was outstretched and bandaged. He said nothing and neither Judy or Delgato could find any words of comfort. Gently, Judy put her paw on Nick's cheek. He looked over to her, wearing a blank expression.

Moving closer, Judy slipped an arm around the back of his head, pulling Nick into a gentle embrace. She felt his slow breaths warm her shoulder, felt the steady beat of his heart, and the trembled sigh he made as his arm wrapped around her back to hold her close.


	10. Float

Grey skies hung over the city like an omen. High above the skyscrapers they cast the City in shadows thick and dark. The storm had moved in late in the night, or early in the morning depending on the mammal in question's point of view. With them they had brought powerful gales of wind that swept through the steel and glass spires of modern society. It whistled through the buildings, which groaned the city's haunting melody through the ears of her population. Then, sometime before dawn, the rain had come, drowning the city in a torrential downpour.

A rolling wave of thunder crashed over the city as if to herald the storm. It began slowly. So slowly that a mammal would have been forgiven for not noticing the sparse droplets of cool water that left their residue here and there. Yet before most knew it the torrent had begun in earnest with sheets of rain crashing down from the skies above. At times it almost seemed to fall laterally, ignoring the feeble protections of umbrellas and soaking the citizens all the same.

Nick couldn't see the rain. He was laying on the floor of his hospital room with a paw clutching his side where the stitches had torn. Blood leaked from between his fingers and every breath was drawn from between gritted teeth.

He hadn't intended to fall, but then who ever did? All Nick had wanted to do was to climb out of bed and into the wheelchair that had now rolled to the far wall where it sat with its seat facing him in a silent taunt. All he had wanted to do was wheel himself into the bathroom to brush his teeth.

Pain wracked his body, but the fox refused to cry out. He held the pain in his gut like the glowing coal from a fire, clutching tight to that pain until he felt it burn in his paws. Pain was how he knew he was still alive.

A thought crossed his mind through the hurt. He was bleeding. How badly he couldn't say for sure. He knew that the front of his hospital gown felt wet. He knew that his paw was soaked, but other than that he didn't know anything. Perhaps if he laid there long enough he would die of bloodloss. If he died now the nurses wouldn't find him for another hour or two. If he died now he wouldn't be crippled anymore.

If he died now Judy would cry again.

New hurt filled Nick, but this hurt superseded the physical pain that drained from his body in a slow red trickle. This hurt clutched at his heart. It made him ache the way he'd ached when a withered old wolf in a white jacket told his mother that her cancer was inoperable. It hurt like it had hurt when he had felt the life slip from her fingers that moment before had been cradling his tearstained cheek.

From the corner of his eye he caught view of the taupe colored thick cord that hung low from his bed. The call button was within his reach. All he needed to do was pull himself a little closer.

If he pressed the call button the nurse would come.

If he pressed the call button Judy wouldn't cry.

Nick took a breath then coughing after a moment. His attention turned from the call button to his legs, or what was left of them. A month since the shooting and they were useless. Feeling had returned, at least partially. His right leg felt heavy, the left he couldn't feel below the knee. The doctors had said it was a good sign. Nick had said he wasn't convinced.

He groaned, a fresh wave of pain radiating from his stomach. He felt it in his teeth, his toes, and to the very tip of his tail. Slowly he drew his paw away from his broken stitches. The feeling of his hand pulling away from his soaked gown made a wave of nausea hit Nick. It produced a sound like wet paint rolled across a bare wall. He took a few breaths and looked at his paw.

Perhaps it was best to leave things as they were. A fox would always be a fox, no matter what uniform he wore to work. If he just left the call button alone, if he didn't reach out, then maybe he'd just close his eyes, and the pain would melt away. All he had to do was nothing.

Judy.

How his thoughts kept coming around to that damnable bunny. He thought of the look on her face after he'd been shot. The horror Nick saw in her eyes that day had given him nightmares for weeks. He didn't have the heart to tell her that he remembered every moment of that day.

Nick groaned, his abdomen growing more painful. He wanted to stop the pain more than anything. He didn't want to be trapped in that stiff hospital bed for another minute if he could avoid it. But what was the life that awaited him outside of it? Was it still living to have every action require a helper to push around the wheelchair, help him dress, help him to the toilet?

A week ago two kindly nurses with smiling faces came into his room. They gave Nick a fresh shot of morphine, put him in a wheelchair, and took him to a private, windowless room with a specially built tub. Being naked infront of total strangers was embarrassing. Being thoroughly washed from head to toe was outright humiliating. At least they didn't see him as an object of pity. At least, to them, he was just part of the job. Could he bear to put someone else through that on a daily basis.

'You are so much more than that.'

The words echoed in his mind, spinning round and round like an endless waltz. He could still smell the humid dawn air as they rode the gondola from the Rainforest district. The way that the light from the dawn reflected off the glass and steel monoliths that built the skyline of Zootopia. He could feel her hand on his forearm with small, gentle fingers slipping over his fur. The look of pain in her eyes when she looked up at him made his stomach twist in knots and his heart ache. Nick clenched his eyes shut tightly. He couldn't burden her.

If he just let go, he might die.

If he reached for the call button, the nurses would come. If the nurses came Judy wouldn't cry.

His heart pounded in his ears. Th-thump. Th-thump. Th-thump. The fox heard it so very clearly. Each beat the steady rhythm of life he had long cherished and grieved. But what, he wondered, would the world care about one more fox pierced by bullets and buried underground.

Judy.

The call button hung in the air mere inches from the floor bt the thick rubber wrapped cord. Somewhere in the back of his mind Nick could almost hear his own voice, thick with sarcasm as he imagined a scene from a movie where he would see visions of his friends and loved ones reaching out for him. They would silently beckon him to take their hands, to live if not for himself, then for them. But life wasn't a movie, and the call button was indifferent to his living or dying.

But was he? Were they?

Was she?

Pain. The hiss escaping through clenched teeth. Blunted claws grasping at the laminate floor.

Pull.

Reach.

The click of the button under his thumb.

Silence. Only a moment, yet seemingly endless. It filled the room and swallowed the fox as a body would be consumed in the crushing void of a deep blue sea.

He floated in that void. Above him the shimmering lights, below, only darkness. He didn't have the strength to swim. He didn't have the strength to drown.

Static crackled through the call button. A voice announced itself with a tinny ring. "How can we help you?" the voice said.

"...help…" he croaked in a voice he didn't recognize as his own.

"Mr. Wilde?" a pause. "Mr. Wilde, are you alright?"

Light flashed, thunder echoed. He focused. He felt the rumble through the floor and forced his mouth shut and swallowed hard on the dryness settled on his tongue. The hurt pulled at him. The voice called to him.

"Help!"


End file.
